General Motors may have only recently bounced back from the financial doldrums, but in arguably the most important developing market in the world it is looking stronger than ever.
Along with its joint ventures, GM surpassed 1.5million sales for 2009 in China on November 10. Indeed over the first 10 months of the year its sales amounted to 1,459,460 units – a new record for the period and a rise of 59.8 per cent compared to 2008. October acted as a microcosm for the company’s success – despite a national holiday at the beginning of the month, the car manufacturer sold 166,911 vehicles – more than double the number it sold in the previous year.
Enjoying particularly strong sales numbers is Shanghai GM, with sales up 46.5 per cent compared to the first 10 months of 2008 to 548,707 units. It finished the month number one in sales among domestic passenger car manufacturers with sales of both the Buick New Regal and the new Buick LaCROSSE topping 6,000 units over the course of the month. The Buick Excelle also excelled (no pun intended) by surpassing one million units since its introduction in 2003.
The company’s other mainstream brand in China also continued to perform strongly – the Chevrolet Cruze and Lova both topped 10,000 units in October, the second month in a row they have reached that figure.
Meanwhile, over the same period, GM’s mini-commercial vehicle joint venture SAIC-GM Wuling registered domestic sales of 891,285 units – that’s an increase of 65.9 per cent on an annual basis. It sold 89,416 vehicles during the previous month alone with domestic sales of China’s best-selling vehicle, the Wuling mini-van, passing 500,000 units for the year.
Also enjoying success was FAW-GM Light Duty Commercial Vehicle Co Ltd, which sold 8,687 vehicles during October – taking its sales to 17,467 since it was established in August. By contrast, GM has reported 1,713,535 light duty vehicles sold in the US from January-October.
