GM sales take huge hit in 3rd quarter

DETROIT — General Motors reported a deep decline in its thirdquarter new vehicles sales amid its battle with a global shortage of semiconductor chips, which has left GM with unprecedented low inventory.

On Friday, GM reported its new vehicle sales in the U.S. plummeted 33 percent from the year-ago period. It sold 446,997 vehicles in the U.S. compared with 665,192 a year ago.

But with nearly all of its North American plants back up and running so far this quarter, GM stands by its full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) guidance of $11.5 billion to $13.5 billion, up from GM’s earlier guidance of $10 billion to $11 billion.

“The semiconductor supply disruptions that impacted our third-quarter wholesale and customer deliveries are improving,” said Steve Carlisle, executive vice president and president of GM North America. “As we look to the fourth quarter, a steady flow of vehicles held at plants will continue to be released to dealers, we are restarting production at key crossover and car plants, and we look forward to a more stable operating environment through the fall.”

Still, GM dealers, who typically have several hundred new cars on their lots, are reporting having less than a dozen as GM idled production or built cars shy of the parts needed, then parked them to wait for the part to finish assembly. GM said during the quarter it shipped 68,000 vehicles to dealers that had been held at assembly plants due to semiconductor supply issues.

GM’s estimated U.S. market share has spiraled to 13.3 percent compared with 16.9 percent of the market in the year-ago period, and 15.6 percent of the market last quarter, according to data from Edmunds.