General Motors on Thursday said it sold a record 2.26m cars and trucks world-wide in the first quarter of 2007.
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Q1 sales were up 3% or 67,000 vehicles compared with sales of 2.19m in Q1 2006. Global market share is estimated at 13.0%, compared with 13.1% a year ago.
“GM posted record sales in the first quarter driven by exceptionally strong demand in emerging markets,” said John Middlebrook, GM’s head of global sales, service and marketing operations.
“We saw more than 20% growth in the Asia/Pacific region and had 17% growth in the Latin America, Africa and Middle East region. We’re also very pleased to see 6% growth in Europe where we sold more than a half-million vehicles and established a new sales record.”
Chevrolet sales of 1.04m vehicles were up 4% year on year. The brand grew 33% in Europe, 12% in Asia-Pacific and 19% in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
Hummer sales grew 37% in the Latin America, Africa and the Middle East region.
Cadillac posted a sales increase outside of North America in the first quarter, thanks to 89% growth in Europe, a 55% increase in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and 47% growth in Asia/Pacific.
Several of GM’s regional brands also experienced notable growth in the first quarter of 2007.
Opel and Vauxhall sold 443,000 vehicles in the first quarter of the year. Vauxhall was up 6.3% and Opel was up about 0.5%.
Saturn sales in the United States and Canada were up 19%, based largely on the popularity of new models.
GM Daewoo sales of 35,000 vehicles were up 31%, outpacing South Korea’s strong market growth on the back of its new Winstorm SUV and Tosca medium car.
At 1.36m vehicles, Q1 2007 sales outside of the United States accounted for about 60% of GM’s total global sales, growing at close to 10% compared with Q1 2006, outpacing the industry average growth rate of 5%.
In the Asia/Pacific region, GM sales of 388,000 vehicles were 20% higher than the previous year’s first quarter, and GM China sales of 290,000 were up 25%. GM remained the top selling automaker in China and sold 100,000 vehicles in a month for only the second time.
In the Latin America, Africa and Middle East region, GM sales reached an industry-best 269,000 vehicles, a record for Q1 and up 17% compared with 2006.
Sales in Brazil were up 12% for the quarter.
Growth in Russia was up 128%. In Europe, Chevrolet achieved record sales of 101,000 vehicles, up 33%.
