GM has record sales in China in May

(June 8, 2010) SHANGHAI — General Motors and its joint ventures had record sales in China in May. Buoyed by strong demand for the Chevrolet brand and ongoing positive demand for its other brands, GM sales totaled 196,004 units.

With sales of its Chevrolet lineup jumping 103.6 percent, sales of its Cadillac products growing 98.1 percent and sales of Buicks rising 22.0 percent on an annual basis, Shanghai GM sales reached 83,302 units in May. 
This represented an increase of 48.7 percent from May 2009.

Chevrolet was the beneficiary of strong demand for the Cruze lower-medium sedan, which grew 112.5 percent to 14,524 units, and the Epica intermediate sedan, which grew 114.6 percent to 5,764 units. In just its fifth month on the market, the New Sail small car from Chevrolet registered sales of 7,616 units. Buick was once again led by strong demand for the Excelle lower-medium family, and new LaCROSSE and New Regal upper-medium sedans, which had combined sales of about 40,000 units.

SAIC-GM-Wuling sales in May rose 5.2 percent to 105,395 units. Demand for its Wuling products surpassed 100,000 units for the fourth month this year. Its most popular model remained the Wuling Sunshine minivan, which generated sales of 56,989 units.

Demand for FAW-GM products totaled 6,773 units in the joint venture’s first May reporting sales. Opel, GM’s import brand from Germany, enjoyed a resurgence in demand of 214.1 percent in May.

GM’s sales in the first five months of the year in China reached 1,032,665 units, a 53.9 percent increase from the first five months of 2009 and a new record for the period. On May 28, GM celebrated the sale of its 1 millionth vehicle in 2010.