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GM China Sales Down 25 Percent In First Quarter 2023

GM China sales decreased 25 percent to 462,200 units during the fourth quarter 2023. Sales decreased at all five GM brands in the country, including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Baojun and Wuling.

SAIC-GM Sales – Q1 2023

First-quarter 2023 sales at SAIC-GM – GM’s primary joint venture in China responsible for Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac operations – decreased 34.1 percent to 173,100 units:

Buick sales decreased 35.0 percent to 106,300 units

All-new Buick GL8 Century MPV

Chevrolet sales decreased 34.1 percent to 34,300 units

  • Chevy Monza remained the brand’s best-selling model, with deliveries of nearly 22,000 units
  • The Chevy Menlo EV crossover sustained strong sales momentum
  • The brand continued to bolster its crossover offensive through the all-new Chevy Seeker, which will be sold as the Trax in North America

2023 Chevy Monza

Cadillac sales decreased 31.6 percent to 32,500 units

  • Cadillac CT5 was once again the brand’s best-seller, with deliveries surpassing 12,000 units
  • The all-new Cadillac Lyriq continued to gain growth momentum
    • Lyriq for China got a major OTA update in late March, enabling Super Cruise functionality to enhance the intelligent driving experience

SAIC-GM-Wuling Sales – Q1 2023

First-quarter 2023 sales at SAIC-GM-Wuling – GM’s other Chinese joint venture responsible for Wuling and Baojun brands – decreased 17.4 percent to 289,100 units:

Wuling sales decreased 17.1 percent to 289,100 units

  • For the first time, GM did not publish Baojun’s total sales
  • Baojun sales are included in the Wuling line item
  • Sales of electric vehicles neared 79,000 units
  • The all-new Wuling Bingo – newest member of SAIC-GM-Wuling’s EV family – was launched in late March and had sales of more than 3,000 units

All-new Wuling Bingo EV

Sales Results - Q1 2023 - China - Baojun

MODELQ1 2023 / Q1 2022Q1 2023Q1 2022
BAOJUN TOTAL-87.06% 2,60020,100

Sales Results - Q1 2023 - China - Wuling

MODELQ1 2023 / Q1 2022Q1 2023Q1 2022
WULING TOTAL-13.29% 286,500330,400

Sales Results - Q1 2023 - China - Chevrolet

MODELQ1 2023 / Q1 2022Q1 2023Q1 2022
CHEVROLET TOTAL-34.79% 34,30052,600

Sales Results - Q1 2023 - China - Cadillac

MODELQ1 2023 / Q1 2022Q1 2023Q1 2022
CADILLAC TOTAL-31.14% 32,50047,200

Sales Results - Q1 2023 - China - Buick

MODELQ1 2023 / Q1 2022Q1 2023Q1 2022
BUICK TOTAL-34.83% 106,300163,100

Sales Results - Q1 2023 - China - GM Totals

BRANDQ1 2023 / Q1 2022Q1 2023Q1 2022
BAOJUN TOTAL-87.06% 2,60020,100
WULING TOTAL-13.29% 286,500330,400
CHEVROLET TOTAL-34.79% 34,30052,600
CADILLAC TOTAL-31.14% 32,50047,200
BUICK TOTAL-34.83% 106,300163,100
GM CHINA TOTAL-24.65% 462,200613,400

About The Numbers

  • All percent change figures compared to GM China sales for Q1 2022, unless noted otherwise
  • GM China sales figures represent retail sales
  • GM does not provide individual sales performance of sales in China

Further Reading & Sales Reporting

Deivis is an engineer with a passion for cars and the global auto business. He is constantly investigating about GM's future products.

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Comments

  1. The story in China seems to be almost only EV sales are increasing, and most foreign automakers sales are way down.

    GM better speed their EV transition in China.

    Reply
  2. Everyone said you must invest in China with 50/50 partnerships. Now those partners will use foreign technology and succeed and the foreign companies will disappear. GM sales are down 50% from 4 years ago. The Japanese pulled the same trick with TVs and cameras. Give it a decade and China companies will be as popular as the Koreans.

    Reply
    1. All Western OEMs including Japanese automakers are experiencing monumental decreases in China (Stellantis already left China). You are correct, all of these automakers were so eager to make a quick dollar that they gave away ~100 years of trade secrets over night. But even that wasn’t enough as domestic cars were not as good as foreign nameplates in China. China dominates most areas of mass manufacturing except the one that matters most – transportation, so the government devised a plan to conquer the West’s dominance by subsidizing its domestic automakers to pursue BEVs. For years, BYD, X-Peng, Nio, and battery makers (CATL) did this and eventually began making compelling BEVs that rival Tesla and are vastly superior to BEVs sold in China by legacy automakers. Then as Chinese automakers had the upper hand in the BEV space (remember, Tesla is handicapped and limited to one China factory and not allowed to expand, plus 1/2 of output is exported) the government enacted a very strict emission law that takes effect July 01, 2023. Since the ICE market is dominated by Western OEMs this only affects them and people aren’t buying these vehicles, despite a dramatic price war, as most will be illegal in just a few months. Therefore, millions of ICE vehicles remain unsold as consumers hold out for better deals as most ICE cars will be worthless in July. Part of this is due to legacy automakers planning on making the less profitable compliant ICE cars at the last minute. Regardless, the entire ICE market has collapsed and all Western automakers have steep YoY declines that will continue. VW and GM are the most exposed. As I stated a month ago, expect Q2 to be even worse. Meanwhile BYD is poised to surpass Toyota in market cap by 2024 (already #3) and is gearing up to conquer the EU with the US not far behind. Legacy auto is in serious trouble and Western governments have no clue what is coming.

      Reply
  3. GM has a huge investment in China and these are significant volume reductions. With the current poor relations between the U.S. and China GM may be working against the Chinese government regulations as well as Chinese competitors. If the Taiwan issue expands into a major conflict then GM and other U.S. companies could be openly targeted with penalties that could reduce their competitiveness and make it unprofitable to remain there.

    Reply
    1. That pretty much describes every American company that has invested in China as well as allies.

      Reply
  4. Well then, the US will sacrifice Taiwan liberty and what’s left of our honor to the almighty Corporate dollar.

    Reply
  5. Would be nice if GM China report each model figures instead of reporting top performing models of each make. This type of reporting does not giving you an idea of how worse certain models are performing since there more models over there than they are here in the US.

    Reply
  6. gm China sales will be down 100% at any time the CCP decides. Queen maryb double down on giving away gm technology for profit will go down as a colossal FAIL by an American CEO. It is malpractice in the first degree. I’ve been preaching this on this blog for several years. The situation is getting worse by the month and the clueless Queen & her court in those Ivory Towers in Detroit continue to blaze down the trail of the Communists.

    Reply
    1. So your brilliant business plan is for one of the largest automakers in the world to ignore the largest auto market in the world and a country with the 3rd largest economy n the world?

      Makes sense. /s

      Reply
  7. The only good communists are in graveyards.

    Reply
  8. This, in the operations perspective, means that they sold 151,000 less vehicles which equals a full shift on any given plant for 1 year! Now, this is in a quarter, so if we multiply the trend, as many point out here, by 4, then it means that 2 complete plants must shut down, or idle- as the politicians like to call it.
    This is an avalanche effect (domino is short in comparison) in the end result for suppliers, employees, contractors and else.
    No wonder why the 5,000 cut in North America to start with.

    Reply
    1. Or those plants need to transition to EV production as that’s the only segment that is really growing and not shrinking.

      Reply
  9. GM is basically stuffed. It’s failing in China and when the new rules against ICE cars come into being in July 2023 GMs China business is over. Mary Barra has been laying claim to sales of Wuling mini EVs but the only link to GM is they are made by GMs JV partner.

    GM Shutdown Holden Australia
    GM sold Opel and Vauxhall in Europe
    GM left Thailand and sold their plant to Chinese EV manufacturer BYD
    GM sold their Nevada plant to Toyota then Tesla for pennies in the dollar
    GM sold 10 million vehicles in 2016 and have been selling less each year down to 5.9 million in 2022. Will GM sell under 5 million vehicles in 2023?
    GM transition to EVs has been a disaster after a decade GM makes very small numbers and loose money on every car sold. GM are discontinuing the Chevy Bolt this year which makes up the majority of GMs EV sales. GM are all talk which rarely eventuates into actuality

    EVs are in good demand and are only constrained through lack of supply. Every year there are more and more EVs sold and each one means one less ICE car sold.

    World EV sales in 2022 was 10 million out of 70 million total vehicles. In not many years EV sales will be 20-30 million with ICE sales collapsing . GM sales will collapse as they will not get to any significant volume of EVs.

    I hope the Goverment does not bail GM out again. There is no way that this soon to be dead duck is ever going to get up and Quack again

    Reply

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