Vehicle sales by General Motors and its joint ventures in China increased 6.3 percent on an annual basis last month to an April record 278,263 units.
Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, as well as their Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Wuling brands, all reached new highs for April sales.
Its strong performance took GM’s sales for the first four months of 2014 to a record 1,197,375 units, an increase of 11.0 percent on an annual basis. This is the eighth consecutive year and the earliest ever that GM has sold more than a million vehicles in a calendar year in China.
Shanghai GM’s domestic sales in April were up 5.8 percent year on year to 128,608 units, SAIC-GM-Wuling’s sales in China were up 7.4 percent to 144,729 units and FAW-GM’s sales in the domestic market were down 3.9 percent to 4,926 units.
Buick sales in the domestic market totaled 68,707 units in April, which was an increase of 2.7 percent on an annual basis. The original Excelle family had sales of 24,092 units, while sales of the Excelle XT and GT totaled 18,253 units. They were followed by the Regal, which sold 8,126 units, and the GL8, which sold 6,403 units.
Chevrolet sales in China rose 6.4 percent from the previous April to 53,810 units. Its best-selling model was the Cruze, whose sales increased 16.0 percent to 20,036 units. Following the Cruze was the Sail, which had sales of 16,598 units, an increase of 7.7 percent.
Cadillac sales were up 49.4 percent from last April to 6,091 units. It benefited from strong demand of 2,678 units for the XTS luxury sedan and 2,405 units for the SRX luxury utility vehicle.
Wuling sales in China rose 11.2 percent on an annual basis in April to 138,524 units. The Hong Guang family sold more than 60,000 units, which was an increase of 92.3 percent year on year.
Between January and April 2014, Shanghai GM had domestic sales growth of 9.3 percent to 550,430 units. SAIC-GM-Wuling generated domestic sales growth of 13.2 percent to 624,740 units. Both were new highs for the period. FAW-GM’s local sales were up 1.1 percent to 21,893 units.
In addition, during the first four months of 2014, Buick sales rose 11.2 percent year on year to 306,801 units, Chevrolet sales were up 2.8 percent to 222,181 units, Cadillac sales jumped 85.4 percent to 21,448 units, Wuling sales grew 14.9 percent to 599,157 units and Baojun sales were down 15.7 percent to 25,583 units.
General Motors traces its roots back to 1908. GM has 12 joint ventures, two wholly owned foreign enterprises and more than 58,000 employees in China. GM and its joint ventures offer the broadest lineup of vehicles and brands among automakers in China. Passenger cars and commercial vehicles are sold under the Baojun, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Jiefang, Opel and Wuling brands. In 2013, GM sold nearly 3.2 million vehicles in China.
