General Motors sees sales dip in China despite new product
For the first time since 2009, General Motors sold fewer vehicles in China than in the United States despite launching new electric vehicles there.
GM has been struggling with its sales in China in recent years and this year was no different as the automaker had said earlier in the year some consumers were opting for domestic brands.
The automaker reported that it and its joint ventures delivered 2.1 million vehicles in China for all of last year, about a 9% decline from its sales in 2022. Last week, GM reported its U.S. sales jumped 14% to 2.6 million; it remains the No. 1-selling automaker in the nation.
In China, electric vehicle sales comprised more than a quarter of GM’s annual sales last year, the company said, but it wasn’t enough to push the automaker to a year-over-year sales gain.
GM’s joint venture partner Wuling reported the strongest results, selling 1.2 million vehicles, a decline of 2% from 2022. It makes GM’s top-selling vehicle there Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV. Baojun had the biggest hit with sales plummeting 33% to 33,000 units.
Buick, which has historically been a popular brand in China, reported a 20% hit to sales: 518,000 units for the year. GM reported sales of Chevrolet vehicles dropped 15% to 169,000, Cadillac sales dipped 5% to 184,000.
Earlier this year, the Detroit Free Press took an in-depth look at the various EVs GM sells in China compared with what it offers in the United States. At that time, GM leaders outlined some reasons for the struggling sales in China — attributing the lackluster numbers, in part, to politics as buyers opt for domestic automakers’ cars, which are increasingly attractive and priced right.
On GM’s April 25 earnings call, GM CFO Paul Jacobson told Wall Street that China has been challenging “as the industry navigates continued COVID-related impacts, regulatory changes for both EV and (internal combustion engine) vehicles and greater-than-expected competitive pricing.”
According to Automotive News, China became GM’s biggest market in 2010 with sales there peaking in 2017 at 4 million. But in recent years, GM’s sales in China have steadily dropped. In the first half of 2022, for example, the Detroit Free Press reported how COVID-19-related restrictions in China hurt new vehicle
sales there. GM reported it sold 2.3 million cars there in 2022.
As consumers returned to the market this year, the competition among all the automakers in China was so intense, only a third of the carmakers met their annual sales goal, Bloomberg reported.
China is the largest car market in the world.