GM China Surprises With Strong October Sales
In China, rumors of empty showrooms during the important Chinese October holidays made the rounds. It must have been different showrooms than GM’s. GM China announced a fresh October sales record of 220,412 units. October sales across all brands of GM China were up 10.4 percent.
The surprising part is that SAIC-GM-Wuling jumped 19.2 percent year on year to a new record for the month of 111,957 units. It was this joint venture that had dragged GM China’s numbers down in the previous months.
Shanghai GM’s sales rose 4.3 percent year on year to a new October high of 103,309 units.
During October, 2011 sales by GM in China surpassed 2 million, reaching 2,113,274 units.
General Motors wants to double its sales to 5 million vehicles per year in China by 2015, GM China chief Kevin Wale told Reuters today. Wale expects the Chinese passenger car market to grow about 10 percent this year, and the overall market to gain 3-5 percent.
The GM results bode well for the Chinese market. Let’s see what the official numbers say when they are announced by the CAAM.
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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No way GM will double sales to 5 Million units by 2015. GM's competitors are not going to stand idly watching GM sell 5 million units. For the to happen, the Chinese auto market has to grow at least 80% in three years, so GM can outpace market growth by a bit and hit 100%. Highly unlikely. 2.5 million more sales in 3 years means, 830,000 more units each year than the last one. However, if this projection holds true and GM hits the % million/Year mark in china, they would easily be selling north of 11 million units a year. GM is really not capable of building 11 million vehicles with their current employment levels/manpower. They only have around 209 K salaried and hourly workers compared to Toyota's 318K and VW's 399K.
Are those Matizes (Matii, Matzies, whatever) I see on the line?