GM China Avoids Near Miss In China, Barely

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

GM China had a near-miss with Volkswagen this year. It scraped by being relegated into second place in China by reporting 26,128 units more than Volkswagen. VW’s 2.81 million cars sold in China were rounded, GM’s 2,836,128 were reported to the last unit.

GM China December 2012Dec ’12YoY12 monthsYoYGM China242,48623.2%2,836,12811.3%Shanghai GM110,13541.7%1,331,02210.9%Buick59,586700,0078.4%Chevrolet45,703626,8465.3%Cadillac2,93730,0100.0%SAIC-GM-Wuling126,73011.7%1,445,20312.4%Wuling117,6131,334,89511.8%Baojun?84,467FAW-GM5,2640.1%55,609-0.9%Exports77,20761.0%Black: GM data. Blue: Calculated from historical GM data

Strange: GM’s China numbers usually are reported quite early in the month, usually in the first week. Not this time. Volkswagen’s numbers were published on January 14, a Sunday. GM’s China numbers were published on the same Sunday.

This year, GM is unlikely to be as lucky as in 2012. Volkswagen’s growth in China is much stronger than GM’s. Volkswagen grew 24.5 percent in China last year, it grew 86.7 percent in December alone. GM China grew 11.3 percent in 2012, and 23.2 percent in December.

GM published no percentage increase for Cadillac’s 2012 sales. We had to look it up. It is 0.0067 percent. GM sold exactly 2 Cadillacs more in China in 2012 than in 2011.

Quite interestingly, what is up strongly are GM’s exports from China. With 77,207 units (most of them Sails) exported, GM increased its foreign sales of Made in China cars by 61 percent.

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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 4 comments
  • Mike978 Mike978 on Jan 14, 2013

    Not one but two articles right next to each other about GM and VW in China and how VW is doing oh so well. Wasn`t once enough? Or is there a quota? I am just surprised you didn`t mentioned the "fraud" of counting Wuling sales (again).

  • Fred diesel Fred diesel on Jan 14, 2013

    NO...wait a second...you mean Cadillac "the new standard of the WORLD" is ALL marketing BU!!$H!T??? And VW/Audis "truth in German engineering" aint far behind!

  • Sunridge place Sunridge place on Jan 14, 2013

    Cadillac will start to show VW like growth numbers in China very soon when they start building the XTS then the ATS there. They plan to go from 30,000 units a year to 100,000 units a year by 2016. Most of the Cadillac's sold there now are imported (from Mexico) SRX's with very, very high prices due to import fees. That sort of insight took me 20 seconds to type.

  • Buickman Buickman on Jan 14, 2013

    Akerson needs to go and Girsky should have been gone long ago.

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