Cruze Sales Contribute to 10% Gain for GM Segment
DETROIT – Best-ever sales of the Lordstown, Ohio-built Chevrolet Cruze in 2013 contributed to a 10% increase over 2012 in combined sales of mini, small and compact cars for General Motors Co., the automaker reports.
The gain in the segment, which was also helped by a best-ever sales performance for the Chevrolet Sonic, were among the highlights featured in GM’s monthly and yearend results released today.
GM dealers delivered 2.8 million vehicles in the United States in 2013. Retail sales were up 11% and total sales up 7% compared with a year ago. Dealers delivered 230,157 vehicles in December, down 6% from a year earlier. Retail sales were down 6% and fleet sales were down 9%.
“2013 was the year that GM and the auto industry put the last traces of the recession in the rearview mirror, so now we can devote our full attention to the things that matter most to customers: compelling design, world-class quality and delivering the best ownership experience in the business,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president, U.S. sales operations. “GM has laid a strong foundation to pursue all of these goals. We have announced more than $10 billion in capital investments in the United States since 2009 and plowed billions more into R&D to refresh our product portfolio at twice the rate of the last few years.”
That includes $200 million GM announced in 2012 it would invest at its Lordstown plant, which began manufacturing the Cruze in 2010 and where GM previously invested $350 million to launch the product.
In its annual results, GM also reported that Buick had its best sales year since 2006 and GMC’s sales were its strongest since 2007.
In addition, GM said fourth-quarter sales were up 6% and December’s volume was the highest since August. Sales of the redesigned Chevrolet Malibu and the new Impala were up 33% and 10%, respectively. Small-business customers took delivery of 26,231 vehicles in December, up 20%. For the year, small-business deliveries were up 35%.
“December started a little slow but sales were stronger later in the month, especially in the week between Christmas and New Year’s,” McNeil said. “We didn’t make any big changes to our ‘go-to-market’ strategy during the month, which is to offer competitive incentives and market aggressively, and we are carrying good momentum heading into January.”
Major upcoming launches include all-new large sport utility vehicles for Cadillac, GMC and Chevrolet, the award-winning Cadillac ELR and all-new heavy-duty and mid-size pickups for Chevrolet and GMC. In addition, GM will begin the industry’s largest deployment of high-speed mobile broadband later this year. Additional details will be released at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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