GM China has first sales drop in years

General Motors’s (GM’s) quarterly sales in China fell for the first time in more than a year, hit by faltering economic growth and a slowdown in the world’s biggest automotive market, amid a trade war with the US.

The US car maker sold 835,934 vehicles in the third quarter ended September, down 14.9% from a year earlier, which the group said was due to a “softening” vehicle market and issues shifting to a new engine system with its Buick brand.

“The major reasons are a softening market, slowing lower-tier cities, Buick’s engine change-over and a strong third quarter last year,” a Shanghaibased GM spokesperson said. She said that the fall was not linked to trade tension.

The fall marks the maiden drop since the first quarter of 2017, when GM’s China sales fell 5.2%. GM switched to reporting only quarterly China sales earlier in 2018, scrapping monthly sales figures it had previously revealed.

China’s automobile sales have been falling more broadly in recent months, with a slowing economy and trade frictions making consumers cautious about spending, an industry body said in September.

GM has been shifting its Buick cars to a new type of more efficient three-cylinder engine to meet emissions targets, which Chinese dealers said had hit sales because consumers were not yet convinced by the smaller engines.

China, the world’s largest vehicle market, is critical for the US car maker. It sold more than 4-million vehicles in that country in 2017, even more than it sold in North America

GM’s China sales rose 0.7% in the second quarter, slowing from an 8% rise in the January-March quarter.