Shanghai, October 16 (Gasgoo.com) China has overtaken the United States to be the largest market for General Motors, the auto giant's president and CEO Frederick A. Henderson said in Shanghai earlier this week, xinhuanet.com reported.
"Interestingly, if we look at China's market this year, we found the market has surpassed US market in size for GM," he said during his first visit to China after he became GM's new CEO in March.
GM and its Chinese joint ventures sold 181,148 vehicles in China in September, an all-time monthly record. For the first nine months in 2009, GM's China sales totaled 1,292,549 units, up 55.6% year on year and a new sales high for the same period historically.
"In the last 100 days, there are certainly a lot of challenges still in the business for the US market, but with our improved structure, we can focus on how to improve our market," said Henderson, who thought China is a "big part for GM today", and GM "will continue to win in China".
GM will also bring five new car models to China in early 2010 and 30 models in the next five years. These new cars are electric cars or hybrid cars, in eyes of promoting green consumption of cars in China, said Henderson.
GM's 2009 sales in China will likely exceed 1.6 million units. The company expects to grow faster than China's auto market in 2010 after outperforming the country's overall market in the first three quarters of this yeear.
