US auto giant Genaral Motors Co. seems to have developed a rapport with the Chinese buyers as its 2009 sales in China grew 67% on a year-on-year basis, higher than the country’s auto industry itself. The company sold a record 1.83 million units in China last year and the figures are expected to grow stronger in 2010.
More than half of the sales came from the company’s mini-commercial vehicle joint venture; SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. as it sold 1,061,213 units last year to become the China’s first automaker to sell more than 1 million vehicles in a year. With sales of 596,630 units, the Wuling Sunshine also set a Chinese industry record for annual sales by a single model.
Based on bullish sales of Buick, Chevrolet and Wuling vehicles, the GM China family achieved an estimated market share of 13.4 percent, another year-end record and an improvement of 1.3 percentage points from the end of 2008, the company said in a statement.
Talking about the company’s achievements Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group said, “Chinese consumers responded enthusiastically to our line up of modern, fuel-efficient and stylish products, validating our strategy of rolling out a steady cadence of great vehicles that are leaders in their respective segments.”
China, which is now in a run to become the largest market for passenger vehicles replacing the US, boosted the domestic market last year by putting several demand enhancing policies, like reducing the purchase tax for vehicles with small engines by 50%, in place last year. According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers Passenger vehicle sales soared 49.7% to 9.23 million units in 2009.
However, the auto maker’s performance in the home turf continued to be disappointing. Its sales in the US market fell by 31.8% to 1.86 million units during the January-November period last year.