General Motors Co. GM released its first-quarter sales report on April 2. While overall sales tumbled 7%, the automaker said demand for expensive sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks was strong. Trucks, SUVs and crossovers made up 80% of total quarterly sales.
The company no longer reports monthly sales.
Key highlights
The Detroit-based automaker delivered 665,840 vehicles in the first quarter, down 6.98% year over year. The average transaction price grew 2.68% from the prior-year quarter to a record $35,881.
GM's per unit incentive spending has dropped an estimated $175 on a year-over-year basis. As a percentage of sales, incentive spending is projected to have fallen 13%.
How did the brands fare?
All of company’s major brands failed to register sales growth in the first three months of 2019.
Cadillac sales declined 2% to 35,995 units. Cadillac ATS saw a mammoth 86% decrease, while Cadillac XTS sales tumbled 23%.
The Chevrolet brand saw sales fall 7.8% to 452,401 units. The decline was attributed to an approximately 16% drop in sales (114,313 units) of Silverado pickups. By contrast, smaller crossovers such as the Chevrolet Trax and Equinox and midsize Chevrolet Colorado pickup achieved first-quarter sales records.
GMC’s sales declined 4.4% to 125,577 units. Despite an impressive performance from the GMC Savana, which saw sales grow 35%, a 2.2% decline in sales of the Sierra (40,546 units sold) let the automaker down.
Buick sales plunged 8.7% to 51,867 vehicles. The brand’s top-selling vehicle, Encore, witnessed 3.38% decrease in sales to 24,606 units. Sales decreased 21.4% for Envision, roughly 59% for LaCrosse and 8.09% for Regal.
Future plans
Looking ahead, the company plans to roll out full-size pickups in the second half of the year along with two new heavy-duty pickups from Chevrolet and GMC. This is a strategic move as the company anticipates the positive trend of larger vehicle sales to continue for the rest of the year. In fact, robust customer demand led to the company increasing capacity at the truck and SUV production facilities.
In a statement, Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations, commented on the intiative.Ă‚
“We are bullish on pickups and expect to gain sales momentum throughout the year,” he said. “We are installing capacity in Flint to build more HD pickups in total, more crew cab models, more dualies and diesel models, too, all in response to dealer and customer demand.”
Disclosure: I do not hold any positions in the stocks mentioned.
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