General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra is betting on a strong year for U.S. car sales, saying recently that the industry is poised to have its best year since 2001.

Barra said the market could see sales of up to 17 million cars and trucks across the United States after a year when 16.5 million were sold in 2014.

The U.S. auto industry hasn’t breached the 17 million mark since 2001, before both the tech crash and real estate crash plunged the nation into recession.

In particular, Barra feels that the U.S. economy has come a long way since the economic crash of 2008, and there “is still plenty of room for the auto industry to grow,” she said prior to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week, according to an Economic Times report.

An improved labor market and a boost in home prices are causing consumers to feel better about the future, which may cause them to open up their wallets to replace their older cars and trucks. The recent sharp decrease in oil prices combined with rising incomes will only bolster that confidence, Barra argued.

There has also been a surge in first-time buyers, helped by an increase in jobs across the country, she said.

GM will be pushing its Chevrolet sedan and SUV models, sales for which have been particularly strong.

The small SUV market is expected to grow more than 80 percent over the next few years, the company projected.

The U.S. automotive market is the second largest in the world after China since 2010, and before that was the largest in the world for more than a century. With persisting economic woes and high fuel prices, the automotive market began to move away from larger vehicles like SUVs and toward a European style of market with more small cars, although large cars still make up the lion share of auto sales in the United States as pickup trucks remain best-sellers.

General Motors is one of the largest automotive companies in the U.S. It competes with other U.S. companies Ford and Chrysler, as well as Asian companies that have gained a sturdy foothold int he United States, particularly Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.