GM China July sales increasing 70%-plus
General Motors Co., the largest overseas automaker in China, is heading for a 70 percent-plus increase in local sales this month on the back of government stimulus measures and a rebounding economy.
July sales will be about 140,000 vehicles, GM China President Kevin Wale said in an interview in Shanghai yesterday. The final figure will be announced next week.
Government subsidies for new vehicles have made the country a growing market for carmakers battling plunging demand in the U.S., Europe and Japan. GM also expects support for the industry to be extended into next year to avoid a collapse in sales.
"We are assuming that they will continue" to offer stimulus measures in some form, Wale said.
China is set to surpass the U.S. as the world's largest auto market this year after the government halved retail sales taxes on small cars and distributed subsidies in rural areas to help spur demand for vehicles including minivans. GM, part-owner of the country's biggest minivan maker, boosted first-half vehicle sales 38 percent to 814,442.
For the rest of the year, "we expect some slow down, but not a dramatic slowdown" Wale said. Industrywide passenger- vehicle sales in the country soared 48 percent in June to 872,900, the biggest jump since February 2006.
China has assumed a central role in GM's strategy after the automaker's predecessor collapsed into bankruptcy amid plunging U.S. auto sales. The Detroit-based company gets about 20 percent of global sales in the country and it plans to oversee all of its international businesses from Shanghai, Wale said. Nick Reilly, the automaker's Asia-Pacific head, has been promoted to manage GM's operations outside of North America.
The automaker's operations in China were unaffected by the U.S. bankruptcy because of their local funding, Wale said. The company makes vehicles in China with SAIC Motor Corp., the nation's largest domestic automaker.
GM plans to roll out as many as 30 models in the next five years in China, Wale reiterated. At least one model will be tailor-made for the local market, he added without elaboration.
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