General Motors and its joint venture partners sold 310,094 new vehicles in China during November 2014, an increase of 5.3 percent on a year-over-year basis. For the first 11 months of 2014, sales in China rose 10.1 percent to 3,182,595 units, surpassing last year’s previous full-year sales record of 3,160,377 vehicles.
Shanghai GM
Shanghai GM, The General’s primary Chinese joint venture that handles sales of Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac vehicles, sold 149,747 units — an increase of 6.7 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Of the 149,747 units sold by Shanghai GM, Buick sales accounted for 78,923 units — up of 3.7 percent on an annual basis. The original Excelle remained the brand’s sales leader, selling 22,325 vehicles, and the Excelle XT and GT followed closely with 19,425 sales. Sales of the Regal and the all-new Envision totaled 10,134 units and 6,795 units respectively.
Chevrolet sales in China came in at 64,006 units for November, an increase of 7.3 percent year-on-year. The brand was led by the Sail family, which posted a 20.7 percent increase to 22,831 units. Right behind it was the Cruze family, which had sales of 20,486 units. Sales of the Malibu rose 8.9 percent to 10,082 units.
Cadillac sales in China increased 8.6 percent on an annual basis in November to 6,818 units. Its best-selling models were the XTS and SRX, which posted 2,777 and 2,013 sales, respectively.
During the first 11 months of 2014, domestic sales by Shanghai GM were up 9.6 percent year-on-year to 1,518,844 units. In that time frame, Buick sales rose 9.7 percent year-on-year to 825,163 units, Chevrolet sales were up 6.4 percent to 629,322 units, and Cadillac sales increased 50.7 percent to 64,359 units.
SAIC-GM-Wuling
SAIC-GM-Wuling’s domestic sales rose 6.7 percent to 156,065 units.
Wuling sales in China totaled 122,596 units in November, as sales of the Hong Guang family grew 16.0 percent to 69,808 units.
Baojun sales jumped 219.8 percent in November to 33,469 units. Sales for the Baojun 730 MPV set a monthly record of 30,089 units.
During the first 11 months of 2014, SAIC-GM-Wuling sales were up 12.2 percent to 1,623,673 units. In that timeframe Wuling sales grew 8.9 percent to 1,480,647 units and Baojun sales jumped 63.2 percent to 143,026 units.
FAW-GM
FAW-GM sold 4,282 vehicles, down 28.9 percent.
During the first 11 months of 2014, FAW-GM sales dropped 24.2 percent to 39,766 units.
Comments
GM China should serve as a role model for US ops. Every market its unique; however, certain lessons transcend region.
I love how Buick fills the old Oldsmobile slot in the Chinese market. In the US, GM is shy to call Buick luxury but in China there are no such hang ups. Buick sales in China remind me of when Cutless was tops in the US.
You’re not considering or aren’t privy to the entire picture. GM China should not serve as a role model to anything. It simply has the same operations as GMNA and GMIO. There are two reasons Buick is so successful in China:
1. It has a strong opinion/mind share because of historic events (not the case for its home market of America, for a multitude of reasons). This has noting to do with its product portfolio.
2. It sells one very cheap model that accounts for 1/3 of its total sales in the region. That model is the original Excelle, which isn’t even a Buick, but rather a tarted up Daewoo from the GM-Daewoo tie-up. More info on this here:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/02/what-is-this-buick-that-sells-20000-units-a-month-in-china/
GM doesn’t exactly brag about Buick in the U.S. because the product doesn’t speak for itself yet, and the reputatipn isn’t there yet. The offensive hasn’t yet begun, but that will change starting with the new flagship:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2015/01/community-question-should-the-buick-avenir-concept-reach-production/