China loves the Wuling Sunshine minivan “sales are up” image courtesy of  GM

By Dennis Bandy

General Motors sales are doing very well in China. I wasn’t even aware that there was a Chevy van called a “Wuling” until I did some research for this article. It’s actually a GM/Wuling; after all, even Chevy vehicles in the US aren’t 100% American and haven’t been for many years. Luckily though, General Motors has positioned themselves to satisfy new cars buyer’s urge to purchase new cars and vans in the growing China market.

Sales are still declining and dealerships are closing in the United States, but in China it’s a different story - Sales records were broken for April of 2009 when measured against comparative sales in April of 2008.

China Chevy sales numbers increased by fifty percent in April 2009, to 151,084 vehicles. Compared with General Motors sales in the United States that have went down in the same period by thirty three percent to 172,150 units.

Buick is a surprise also in China. Buick car dealers in the United States delivered only 8,928 vehicles in April 2009, but in China they sold 38,071 vehicles; that’s a sixty four percent increase compared to sales numbers during the same period in 2008.

Even though the Buick sales numbers are impressive in China, General Motors sales are even better when it comes to mini-vans. It’s apparent that the Shanghai-GM-Wuling joint venture has been a good move for GM, with sales in China totaling 95,544 in April of 2009, that’s an increase of sixty one percent.

The Wuling Sunshine has become a popular minivan/microvan with the Chinese that live further out of cities and for some reason first time buyers. It was China’s bestselling vehicle in April 2009, totaling 50,491.

Coming off a record month in March, GM is very satisfied with the ongoing strength in domestic sales of both of our joint ventures,” said Kevin Wale, president of the GM China Group. “We are particularly pleased with the resurgence of the Buick brand. Our new-product offensive, which is still in its early stages, has helped get customers into our showrooms and increase demand across the board.