Dave Schoch, CEO Ford China, at the Chinese Explorer Launch in 2012.
General Motors and its joint ventures sold a May record of 252,942 vehicles in China, sales increasing 9.4% from the same month last year. Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling as well as all of their brands also had all-time sales highs for the month. Until Volkswagen Group reports this appears to affirm once again GM’s long-held Number One position in the world’s largest auto market.
Crosstown rival and slow starter in China, Ford Motor Company also posted a record from a year earlier to 70,540 passenger cars. China Jiangling Motors Corporation or JMC, Ford’s commercial vehicle joint venture, also grew during May, with 17,057 vehicles sold, up 21% from 14,056 in May 2012. To the end of May, JMC’s sales in China total 94,208 this year, up from 87,521 in the first five months of 2012.
For GM, which is struggling in Europe and recording below average gains in the recovering U.S. auto market, the Chinese results were welcome news. For the first five months of 2013, GM and its joint ventures sold a record 1,331,185 vehicles in China, an increase of 10.6% year-on-year. Shanghai GM’s sales in China rose 17.1% to 620,968 units, SAIC-GM-Wuling’s domestic sales grew 5.8% to 682,354 units and FAW-GM’s China sales were up 2.2% to 26,380 vehicles.
GM and its joint ventures offer the broadest lineup of vehicles and brands among automakers in China. Passenger cars and commercial vehicles are selling under the Baojun, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Jiefang, Opel and Wuling brands. In 2012, GM sold more than 2.8 million vehicles in China. It has been the sales leader among global automakers in the market for eight consecutive years, but is being pressed by the Volkswagen Group, which is now a close second.
Ford Motor’s May brought total sales in China to 332,467 for the first five months of the year, up 48% from the same period a year earlier.
