SEOUL– GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., said Tuesday its sales jumped 76 percent last month from a year earlier on strong exports.
GM Korea sold 23,752 vehicles in December, up from 13,531 units a year ago despite an extended global chip shortage, the company said in a statement.
Domestic sales fell 27 percent on-year to 1,840 units last month from 2,519, while exports nearly doubled to 21,912 from 11,012 over the cited period on increased shipments of the Trailblazer SUV, it said.
For the whole of 2022, sales rose 12 percent to 264,875 autos from 237,044 a year earlier.
In a two-track brand strategy, GM Korea sells domestically produced and imported vehicles in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.
Its lineup is composed of four locally assembled models — the Spark mini car, the Malibu sedan, and the Trailblazer and Trax SUVs — and five imported ones — the Colorado pickup, the Bolt all-electric car, and the Equinox, Traverse and Tahoe SUVs.
Most of the models currently sold in South Korea are from the Chevrolet brand.
GM Korea is considering launching the GMC brand, with the Sierra Denali set to be released as the brand’s launch model in the Korean market.
It aims to achieve a turnaround this year by producing a next-generation crossover utility vehicle (CUV) model at its Changwon plant, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul, and expand production of the next-generation Trailblazer SUV at its Bupyeong plant, just west of Seoul, next year.
GM Korea plans to begin the production of the new CUV in Changwon in the first quarter. It reported net losses for eight consecutive years through 2021 and expects losses to narrow this year.
Source: Yonhap News Agency