Strong U.S, China Results Push GM's First Half Global Sales Up 4%
Though handicapped by continued sliding sales in the overall European market, GM announced today that global sales for the first 6 months of 2013 were up 4% over the comparable period last year.
The automaker said that it sold 4.85 million cars and light trucks, paced by a 7% increase in International Operations (1.57 million of the 1.92 million cars and trucks that unit sold were in China, where GM sales were up just under 11 percent) and in North America, where the markets continue to outperform Europe. After Toyota reports its sales, we’ll know who the biggest car company in the world is. Right now, GM is in first place ahead of the Volkswagen group’s 4.7 million units. North American sales for General Motors were up 7.7% to 1.64 million units, 1.43 million of which were in the company’s home market of the U.S. where sales were up 8% over 2012. Europe continues to be the weak man of the auto industry, where sales fell 6.5%, to 797,000 vehicles.
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I guess there's no chance of taking the "high road" and just moving on......
How much of this GM increase in China is due to the infamous Wuling van? You know, the outfit GM third owns but counts all the output as theirs? There's the rub. In a typical year GM counts 1.25 million of these little buzzers as theirs, at a retail price of maybe $5K each. I can read dry stats like this post all over the net. The thing about TTAC was that the truth included such knowledge as the Wuling caper. It's one thing to call GM the biggest car company in the whole wide world. It's quite another to base this foundation on weird stats like this.
Agree with some guys that this Wulling stats are hard to clearly see if it is GM or not, many companies in China in JV are not 50:50 but 49:51 so Chinese automakers have majority and they should count those sales and not foreign companies, but hard to say here, but anyway Toyota will win this year again, also 1st half i expect their numbers to be close to last year´s 4.97m - maybe 4.95-96m this time.
Isn't that an old GM Stock Certificate? New GM is named "General Motors Company". Automotive News reported that GM outsold Toyota in the most recent quarter, though Toyota was still ahead for the first 1/2. Re: China- All foreign makers are required to operate there in joint ventures with Chinese companies. If you want to discount GM's sales there, discount VW, Toyota, et al.