Shanghai GM lifts '09 sales target to 580,000 units

Shanghai, July 9 (Gasgoo.com) Shanghai GM, General Motors' passenger car venture in China with SAIC Motor, plans to raise its sales target of this year from 500,000 units to 580,000 units. If the goal is achieved, the company's full-year sales will increase by more than 30% from 2008, said Shanghai Securities News.

Shanghai GM sold 288,843 vehicles in the first half of this year, growing by 16.1% year-on-year (y/y) and setting the company's half-year sales record. The January-June sales of its best-selling Buick brand jumped 34% from a year earlier to 195,989 units.

The company's sales in June jumped by 59% y/y to 60,356 units, an all-time high of monthly sales, built on the year-on-year growth of 28% in April and 50% in May. Its new models recorded higher sales growth last month, with 7,693 Buick New Regal cars and 8,623 Chevrolet Cruze cars sold.

GM sales in China rose 38% year-on-year in the first six months to a record 814,442 units, an all-time first-half record, the company said. First-half sales by SAIC-GM-Wuling, GM's commercial-vehicle venture in China, rose 49.9% from a year earlier to 524,598 units.

To boost its market growth, Shanghai GM yesterday launched its new Buick LaCrosse models in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, to compete with the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord locally produced by Guangzhou Auto's ventures with the two Japanese carmakers.