General Motors Posts Yet Another Record Year In China

Due to the release of several new models in the Asian markets, General Motors and its venture partners sold a record 2,836,128 vehicles in China in 2012, obliterating the record set in 2011, with sales growing 11.3 percent year-over-year. But we knew this was to happen, as GM and its overseas partners set the new sales record in China two months ago.

Domestic sales by Shanghai GM went up 10.9 percent this past year to a record 1,331,022 vehicles. Buick sales in China increased 8.4 percent from the previous year, ending with just over 700,000 total sales for 2012. Chevrolet also bloomed to 626,846 units, a 5.3 percent gain over 2011, led by the Cruze and Sail models with 232,592 and 218,090 tallied sales, respectively. Cadillac observed an incremental increase, selling 30,010 units, with 21,698 of them accounting for the SRX.

“GM continued to look to the future in China in 2012,” said  Bob Socia, President, GM China, and Chief Country Operations Officer, China, India and ASEAN. “We introduced several new and upgraded products, grew our manufacturing footprint, and expanded our R&D and product development capability.”

GM’s ever-growing success in China was enhanced this past year due to the introduction of the Chevy Malibu and Buick Encore. Also, OnStar had newly added features for Buick, Chevy, and Cadillac owners, causing 500,000 people to subscribe to the first telematics provider in China. In other growth news, GM ended the 2012 year with 3,800 dealerships across all of China.

Wuling sales in the domestic market rose 11.8 percent year on year to 1,334,895 units. And Baojun tallied 84,467 sales in its first full year on the market.

As we all know, the Asian car market is an ever-growing one, and with GM’s strong sales to date, it only makes sense that there is a bright future ahead for Chevy, Buick, and GMC in the Eastern Hemisphere.