Three years ago, G.M. needed to sell nearly four million vehicles a year in the United States to break even, but today, it can be profitable at roughly half that sales volume, Mr. Liddell said in the video. Hourly labor costs have been cut by more than two-thirds, to $5 billion, from $16 billion in 2005, he said.

Through October, G.M. was on pace to sell about 2.2 million vehicles this year in the United States, about half as many as it did in 2005, when it lost $10.6 billion.

It shed four of its eight domestic brands, shutting down Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer, and selling Saab to a Dutch company, Spyker Cars. Over all, G.M.’s sales are up 6.6 percent this year, but sales by the brands that are still offered, Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC, are up 22.1 percent.

New models, including redesigned versions of the Buick LaCrosse sedan and Chevrolet Equinox crossover vehicle, have been well received by critics and consumers, to the point that G.M. has struggled to keep up with demand. Early sales of a critical new small car, the Chevrolet Cruze, have been brisk, and G.M. is about a month away from introducing the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid car that it says represents the company’s future direction.

G.M.’s public stock offering, expected to occur Nov. 18 and be worth at least $10.6 billion, will allow the federal government to begin recouping the bulk of its $49.5 billion investment in the automaker. The government plans initially to sell about a third of its 61 percent stake in G.M., in the hope that it can divest the remaining portion as the shares’ value increases.

The automaker said last week that shares would be priced from $26 to $29, after a three-for-one split. Other G.M. stakeholders, including a trust that pays health care costs for union retirees, plan to participate in the offering.

Ultimately, the government needs to sell its shares for an average of about $44 to break even. The Treasury Department already has recovered $7.4 billion from G.M., including interest and dividends, and is slated to get a $2.1 billion more after the offering, from a deal in which G.M. has agreed to repurchase preferred shares held by the Treasury.