April 20 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. repaid $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

The company is paying back the loans “in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule,” Whitacre said in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal. The two governments hold a majority of the automaker’s equity, he said.

The repayment shows “our plan for building a new GM is working,” Whitacre said. GM is “leaner, stronger” and building new vehicles whose sales have allowed the company to invest more than $1.5 billion at 20 plants in the U.S. and Canada, he said.

Whitacre said that nobody, including taxpayers and the company itself, was happy that GM needed government loans.

“We believe we can best thank the citizens of the U.S. and Canada by making sure that their investments are hard at work every day, building high quality, fuel-efficient vehicles our customers can count on,” Whitacre wrote.