GM second-quarter sales increase 18.8% as supply chain stabilizes

Detroit – General Motors’ U.S. auto sales rose 18.8% in the second quarter compared with a year-ago lackluster performance as the automaker grapples with supply chain issues.

The Detroit automaker reported Wednesday that it sold 691,978 new vehicles between April and June. This compares to sales of 582,401 vehicles in the second quarter of 2022. That’s also up sequentially from GM’s first-quarter sales of just over 600,000 new cars and trucks.

Second-quarter sales by General Motors and other automakers including Honda, Nissan and Stellantis suggest that demand for new vehicles is growing as inventories of cars and trucks improve from record lows during the coronavirus pandemic and supply chain problems. rebound.

Auto industry forecasters expect industry sales to grow 16% to 18% in the second quarter from a year earlier.

Cox Automotive recently raised its industry-wide full-year new-vehicle sales forecast to 15 million, up nearly 8% from 2022, when sales will eventually reach 13.9 million due to low inventory levels and rising prices.

GM said retail sales rose 15 percent in the first half of the year, while fleet business grew 30 percent.

GM’s EV sales topped 36,300 in the first half of the year, including 15,652 in the second quarter.

The company previously said it planned to produce 50,000 electric vehicles in the first half of the year and 100,000 in the second half. A GM spokesman had no immediate comment on whether the company had achieved a sales trial of 50,000 vehicles by June.

GM maintained its status as the largest U.S. automaker in the first six months of the year, selling nearly 1.3 million vehicles. After Toyota took the top spot in 2021, the Detroit automaker regained its decades-long title last year.That year was the first time since 1931 that General Motors wasn’t America’s best-selling car company

On Wednesday, Toyota reported sales of more than 1 million vehicles in the US through June.