General Motors and its two joint ventures delivered more than 780,000 vehicles in China in the first quarter, an increase of 69 percent from the year-earlier period when the coronavirus outbreak severely dented auto sales and production.
Driving the sales rebound were the Wuling, Cadillac and Buick brands, according to tallies GM’s China unit released this week.
Deliveries at Wuling, whose main products are minibuses, doubled from a year earlier to exceed 347,000 on strong demand for its first four-door full electric sedan and first pickup model.
Cadillac deliveries soared 114 percent to exceed 57,000 on volume generated by the XT4, XT5 and XT6 crossovers and the CT5 sedan.
Buick sales surged 73 percent to more than 224,000 as demand for the GL8 multipurpose vehicle, the Envision crossover and the LaCrosse sedan remained robust.
Chevrolet deliveries rose 27 percent to top 64,000, led by the Blazer and Equinox crossovers, and the Malibu XL sedan.
Deliveries at Baojun, a market-entry car brand, increased 4.4 percent to more than 86,000.
GM operates a Chinese joint venture with local partner SAIC Motor Corp. to build and distribute Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet cars and light trucks. The two companies produce and market vehicles for Wuling and Baojun via a separate partnership.
While extending a recovery that began in April 2020, GM’s first-quarter sales in China were still below the 813,973 vehicles the Detroit automaker reported for the first quarter of 2019.
