GM Selling More, Growing Faster in China Than In U.S.
General Motors and its joint venture partner in China are selling more vehicles in China than GM sells in the United States, and growing a lot faster.
That's something that was bound to happen sooner or later, but it's surprising it happened so fast, and so emphatically. GM said its China sales shot up an incredible 48.5 percent in the first half to about 1.2 million. Its U.S. auto sales in the first half were just under 1.1 million, an increase of 14.3 percent, according to AutoData.
It was news in 2007, when GM and its Chinese partners, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., topped sales of 1 million units for the whole year in China, the first time any automaker had done so. Three years later, in 2010, GM and SAIC did it in less than six months.
It's surprising to me that GM isn't trumpeting its success in China a lot louder, especially since GM is preparing an Initial Public Offering, maybe as soon as next month. If I were an investor, I would sleep easier knowing GM is doing so well in China, a market that's so big, and growing so fast.
To be sure, in a recent GM presentation for investors, the company said repeatedly that it is growing its share in overseas markets, but nothing so graphic as this. GM wasn't hiding the information or anything, but I had to look in a couple of different places and compare numbers before realizing that the China sales numbers for GM were growing so fast, and outstripping the United States so substantially.
Sales in China for the GM group include minicars and commercial vehicles that are not offered in the United States, but GM is also doing its best to grow its U.S. brands, Buick, Cadillac, and Chevrolet in China as well. In particular, Buick is a big seller in China, or else the brand might not have survived GM's bankruptcy restructuring last year.
In the run-up to its IPO, GM is bound to promote its growth in China more than it has so far.
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Photo: GM