GM Strong In China

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

GM had a better November in China than at home in America. Back home, sales rose only 3.3 percent to 186,505 units in November. In China, the world’s and GM’s largest market, GM sold a total of 260,018 units across all joint ventures, up 9.7 percent compared to November 2011.

GM China November 2012Nov ’12YoY11 monthsYoYGM China260,0189.7%2,593,64210.4%Shanghai GM136,44420.6%1,220,8878.7%Buick70,17217.4%593,153Chevrolet63,01215.3%627,411Cadillac3,2608.4%27,073SAIC-GM-Wuling118,536-0.5%1,318,47312.5%Wuling108,304-0.5%1,217,282Baojun10,23270.0%?FAW-GM4,8374.2%50,3451.0%Black: GM data. Blue: Calculated from historical GM data

GM had a better November in China than at home in America. Back home, sales rose only 3.3 percent to 186,505 units in November. In China, the world’s and GM’s largest market, GM sold a total of 260,018 units across all joint ventures, up 9.7 percent compared to November 2011.

January through November, GM booked 2.59 million units in China, up 10.4 percent. In 2011, GM sold 2.55 million units in the whole year, a number exceeded a month earlier this year. Passenger vehicles sold through Shanghai GM are up strongly. Sales of Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac as a whole are up 20.6 percent. Sales of SAIC-GM-Wuling are weak. In the past, we used GM’s China sales as a leading indicator for the Chinese market. With the dislocations caused by the partial boycott of Japanese brands, that indicator is rendered useless at the moment. It stands to reason that Shanghai GM sales profited some from Japan’s misery in China.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Blowfish Blowfish on Dec 06, 2012

    Have the Nippon jin forgotten all those big ticketed investment in Middle Kingdom? or simply already wrote it off? still no signs of mitigating the situation. can japan afford to exit MK's vast market when everybody & their cousins trying to get close for a bit of the market?

  • Philadlj Philadlj on Dec 06, 2012

    Yes folks, the new, quintessentially American Malibu is selling about as badly in America as the quintessentially Chinese Baojun is selling in China.

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