General Motors announced that it sold 9,714,652 vehicles worldwide in 2013, which is very close to figures released by VW that said it delivered more than 9.7 million unit. However, both GM and VW are expected to be surpassed by Toyota as the world’s largest carmaker.
GM said its 2013 sales were up by more than 400,000 vehicles (+4.5 percent) from 2012. VW reported a growth of nearly 5 percent, but said it won’t release precise figures for at least two weeks, with spokesman Carsten Krebs saying the race for second place will be “very, very close.”
GM’s biggest market last year was China, with sales of 3.16 million vehicles, followed by the U.S. with 2.79 million deliveries (+7.3 percent). Sales in Brazil hit 649,849 (+1 percent), while UK deliveries reached 300,977 (+11 percent). An equal growth rate was posted in Russia, where sales totaled 257,583.
In Europe and South America GM posted declines of 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
With 4.98 million units, Chevrolet made more than half of the group’s 2013 total, followed by Opel/Vauxhall (1.06 million), Buick (1.03 million) and Cadillac (250,830).
At the VW Group, the VW Passenger Cars brand 5.93 million vehicles in 2013, followed by Audi (1.58 million), Skoda (920,800), VW Commercial Vehicles (551,900), Seat (355,000) and Porsche (162,100).
VW Group’s largest market was also China, with 3.27 million sales, followed by Germany (1.16 million), Brazil (682,200), United States (611,700) and Russia (317,700).
By Dan Mihalascu
Story References: GM, VW via Detnews
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