General Motors leads sales in the first half of the year

GM yesterday announced that it had sold 4.852 million vehicles globally in the first half of this year, an increase of about 4% year-on-year. In addition to Toyota’s not yet published data, GM’s global sales in the first half of the year were among the highest among car companies that had disclosed data, exceeding the Volkswagen Group.

General Motors said that in the first half of 2013, cumulative sales volume reached 4,852,848 new highs worldwide, compared to 4,669,917 units in the same period of last year, an increase of 3.9% year-on-year, which accounted for 11.5% of the global auto market share from 11.4%.

Among all business units, sales of General Motors North America (GMNA) increased by 7.7% year-on-year to 1,641,717 units from 1,524,495 units. The market share increased from 17.0% to 17.2%. General Motors Europe (GME) sales fell 6.5 percent year-on-year to 797,333 units from 853,059 vehicles. The market share dropped from 8.5% to 8.4%. General Motors South America (GMSA) sales fell 501,510 vehicles year-on-year to 496,719 units, and its market share dropped from 18.2% to 17.2%. Sales of General Motors International Operations (GMIO) increased by 7.0% year-on-year to 1,917,079 units from 1,790,853 units. The market share increased from 9.3% to 9.4%.

In the first half of the year, Volkswagen Group delivered a total of 4.70 million new vehicles globally, and delivered 4.45 million units in the first half of last year, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%. However, this data does not include the statistics of Mann and Scania's two major commercial vehicle subsidiaries. According to estimates, even with commercial vehicle sales, Volkswagen’s sales in the first half of the year are unlikely to be universal.

In the world’s top-selling car companies last year, Toyota Group (including Hino and Daihatsu) took the lead with 9.748 million units, followed by General Motors’ 9,285,991 units, and Volkswagen ranked third with 9.276 million units, excluding two major commercial vehicle subsidiaries. It is 9.07 million vehicles.

Strong sales in China market

In the first half of this year, General Motors became the highest-selling foreign automaker in China with a record of 1.567 million units, leading the Volkswagen Group to less than 30,000 vehicles.

In June, General Motors sold 236,207 cars in its largest single market in China, which was a year-on-year increase of 10.6% on June 2012, 213,495 units, creating the best results in June. Accumulated sales in the first half of the year also increased by 10.6%, which was higher than 1,417,047 units in the same period last year to 1,567,392 units.

Among the joint ventures, Shanghai GM’s domestic sales in June increased by 11.7% year-on-year to 109,921 units from 109,127 units. Sales volume for the first half of the year increased by 16.2% from 639,549 units to 742,889 units. If an export vehicle is included, sales of Shanghai GM increased by 9.5% year-on-year to 127,258 units from 116,250 units in June. From the 671,530 units in the first half of the year, it increased by 16.2% year-on-year to 780,496 units.

SAIC-GM-Wuling’s domestic sales increased by 9.9% year-on-year from 100,407 units to 110,321 units. From the 745,427 units in the first half of the year, it increased by 6.3% to 792,675 units.

FAW-GM fell 3% to 3,349 vehicles from 3,357 vehicles in the same period of last year, from 29,172 vehicles in the first half of the year to an increase of 1.9% to 29,729 vehicles.

As a reference, the Volkswagen Group delivered 262,700 new Chinese vehicles in the largest single market in June this year, compared with 217,300 units in the same period of last year, a year-on-year increase of 20.9%. This increase was significantly higher than the volume of change in mass sales delivered by the general public in most other major regions.

Including Mainland China and Hong Kong and Macau, Volkswagen Group sold a total of 1.54 million vehicles in the Chinese market in the first half of the year, compared with 1.3 million in the same period last year, an increase of 18.7% year-on-year. Including 105,000 imported vehicles, the year-on-year increase of 30.6% year-on-year was 80,100 units in the first half of 2012. This is the first time that Volkswagen has sold more than 1.5 million units in the first half of the year in China.

This year, GM and Volkswagen both plan to achieve annual sales of 3 million vehicles in China. Last year, the sales volume of the two companies in China was 2.83 million and 2.81 million.

Chevrolet Innovation High <br><br> In the first half of this year, General Motors' Chevrolet brand sold 2.5 million vehicles, an increase of 1.4% year-on-year, and achieved its 11th consecutive quarter of growth.

The United States and China are the top two markets for Chevrolet sales. The Chevrolet brand sold 193,460 vehicles in the United States in June, the highest since September 2007, and a 7.4% increase compared to the same period of last year. The brand's cumulative sales in the first half of the year reached 1,015,134 units, an increase of 5.6% year-on-year.

The Chevrolet brand's sales in China in June increased by 7.0% year-on-year to 55,247 units. Among them, the brand's best-selling model - Cruze sales of 19,965 vehicles, sales of 19,674 vehicles in Europe. Chevrolet's sales in China increased by 6.1% year-on-year to 321,904 units in the first half of the year, and sales of its Chevrolet brands, including Sail, Cruze, Malibu and Captiva, were outstanding. The new Chevrolet Sail sold 25,011 vehicles in June, including 37,607 export sales, and sold 147,405 vehicles in the first half of the year.

This was followed by an increase of 5.1% to 305,000 vehicles in Brazil, 15.7% in Mexico to 91,000 vehicles in Mexico, and 16.1% in Russia to 80,200 vehicles.