DETROIT, Michigan - General Motors is preparing for oil prices as high as 130 US dollars a barrel once the world economy recovers and will develop more electric cars and biofuels, GM's top executive said Wednesday.

"We're planning for oil in the 100 dollars per barrel to 130  USdollars per barrel range," the bankrupt automaker's chief executive Fritz Henderson said at an energy conference in Detroit sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club.

"This is a structural change," he added, noting increased global demand.

He also said that car sales in China are set to surpass those in the United States this year for the first time ever in a landmark shift.

"We used to think that might happen in 2015 or 2020," Henderson said.

For GM to be competitive, the company had to look at "multiple paths" including electric cars and biofuels, he said, adding: "In the end, it's the consumer that will drive us to make more efficient automobiles."

Henderson said he was in daily contact with President Barack Obama's auto task force and was preparing for an upcoming hearing on whether GM should be sold to a consortium of investors including the US Treasury, the Canadian government, the company's blue-collar retirees and creditors.  

The new GM is expected to exit bankruptcy at the end of the summer.