April turned out to be a very positive sales month in China for two of the world’s largest automakers, General Motors and Toyota.
The Detroit firm and its joint ventures in China set a domestic sales record for April of 227,217 vehicles, up 11.7 percent from the same month last year. In the first four months of 2012, GM’s sales totaled 972,369 units, an increase of 9.4 percent on an annual basis.
“GM and our joint ventures today [May 7, 2012] sold our 1 millionth vehicle in China this year,” said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the GM China Group. “This is the sixth time and the earliest in our history that we have reached this important milestone in China. It has put us on track to once again set a new sales mark for the year as a whole.”
On its behalf, Toyota and its two local joint-venture partners sold about 81,700 vehicles in April, an increase of 68 percent over the same month a year ago. According to a company spokesperson, for the first four months of 2012, the Japanese carmaker delivered 293,200 vehicles, up 14.3 percent from a year ago.
Toyota said that it is on track to sell 1 million cars in China this year, up from around 883,400 vehicles in 2011.
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