Although its North American operations continue to struggle, General Motors expects to exceed its China sales forecast this year. GM revealed earlier this year that it expected its China sales to grow by 27 percent this year, but sales are on pace to surpass that figure.
Sales have been on the rise in China since February, outpacing GM’s original forecast of 1.4 million sales this year. In 2008, GM tallied 1.1 million China sales.
“We feel very comfortable with China, the way we work there with our joint venture partners,” Johan Willems, vice president of GM International Operations, told Reuter. “We have run pretty quickly in China to take advantage of the market, and we have a good footprint there.â€
GM’s July China sales surged 78 percent to 114,593 units, helping the Detroit automaker to take a 13.4 percent market share. For the year, GM’s China sales are up 42.8 percent. The Chinese market could top 10.5 million sales this year, up from 9.38 million in 2008. China is currently the world’s largest car market.
