For the year 2011, General Motors managed to be the best-selling automaker in the United States with 2,503,797 total vehicles sold. Reasonable thinking would lead to believe that the American market would be GM’s largest but that isn’t exactly the case. During the twelve months of 2011, the General managed to sell more vehicles in China than the U.S. with 2,547,171 units. Not only did GM Shanghai out sell the brand’s home field, but that figure marked an all-time sales record for the Chinese market. A 8.3 percent increase was seen compared to 2010, which was still larger than U.S. sales. With the help of a joint partnership between Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, namepaltes such as Buick and Cadillac have made GM the best-selling brand in China for seven consecutive years.
“GM stayed ahead of the competition despite a slowdown in the growth of industry demand thanks to our broad portfolio of appealing vehicles,” said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the GM China Group. “GM and our joint ventures introduced 12 new models in 2011 while expanding our manufacturing and product development capability to meet rising demand.” There are numerous GM products available to China; more in fact than in the U.S. With market exclusive Buicks such as the Excelle, many Opel products and the Wuling Sunshine, GM has a massive hold on the country. Newly released vehicles such as the Cadillac CTS, Buick LaCrosse eAssist and even the Chevrolet Camaro will surely help the company expand even more so. All of GM manufacturing plants are having to expand capacity to keep up with the growing demand and currently, there are more than 2,700 dealers scattered across China.
Source: GM
