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GM China July sales up 78% y/y to 144,593 units

George Gao From Gasgoo.com| August 03 , 2009 15:13 BJT

Shanghai, August 3 (Gasgoo.com) General Motors said today its sales in China last month rose 77.7% from a year earlier to 144,593 units, Dow Jones reported. Sales in the January-July period rose 42.8% from the same period last year to 959,035 units, GM said in a statement. It didn't provide the year-earlier figures.

"This was GM China's best July ever, extending an uninterrupted series of single-month sales records that started in January 2009," GM said in the statement. The U.S. automaker makes vehicles in China mainly through two joint ventures, Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, with partners SAIC Motor Corp. and Wuling Automobile Co.

Government subsidies for new vehicles have made China a growing market for carmakers battling plunging demand in the U.S., Europe and Japan. "We are assuming that they will continue" to offer stimulus measures in some form, GM China President Kevin Wale said in an interview at last week.

China is surpassing 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 SAIC-GM-Wuling, boosted first-half vehicle sales 38% to 814,442 units.

The Chinese market has assumed a central role in GM's strategy after the auto giant's predecessor collapsed into bankruptcy amid plunging U.S. auto sales. The Detroit-based company gets about 20% of global sales in China and plans to oversee all of its international businesses from Shanghai.

GM's operations in China were unaffected by the U.S. bankruptcy because of their local funding, Wale said. GM plans to roll out as many as 30 models in the next five years in China. At least one model will be tailor-made for the local market.

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