GM’s January U.S. Sales Reflect Truck-Hungry Market

General Motors took advantage of U.S. consumer hunger for trucks as well as an extra selling day to boost volume last month, although the Detroit automaker’s year-over-year daily sales comparison slipped 2.7%.

GM sold 198,548 light vehicles in January, compared with 195,827 last year, according to WardsAuto data. In terms of straight volume, the automaker’s deliveries grew 1.4%.

Demand for GM’s stable of CUVs, as well as its bread-and-butter pickups and SUVs, carried over from 2017, says Kurt McNeil, vice president-U.S. sales operations, at GM.

“All of our brands are building momentum in the industry’s hottest and most profitable segments,” McNeil says in a statement accompanying the results.

“Chevrolet led the growth of the small (CUV) segment with the Trax, as well as the mid-pickup segment with the Colorado. Now we have the all-new Equinox and Traverse delivering higher sales, share and transaction prices.”

The 5-passenger Equinox CUV, GM’s second-best seller behind the Chevy Silverado large pickup, was fully redesigned last year and its sales jumped 44.2% in January to 26,405 units from 17,574 year-ago. Sales of the Traverse large CUV, which also was redone from stem-to-stern last year, grew 35.8% to 11,627 copies from 8,218 in like-2017.

Sales of the Chevy Trax compact CUV, another relatively new model in the segment from GM, increased 11.5% to 6,106 units from 5,257 last year.

Old-fashion trucks were hot for the bowtie brand, too. Deliveries of the Silverado, which will send a fully redesigned model into the market later this year, gained 9.9% to 40,716 units from 35,553 year-ago. The big Tahoe SUV drew 7,147 takers last month, up 16.7% from 5,881.

Brand-wide sales at Chevy in January grew to 141,947 from 135,088, although the extra selling day left year-over-year comparisons flat.

Buick sales last month rose to 13,648 from 13,117, despite a rare lull in interest for the Encore compact CUV, which saw demand fall 15.2% to 4,645 from 5,258 year-ago. However, the cute-ute remained Buick’s best-selling model ahead of the newly redesigned Enclave large CUV, which drew 2,715 buyers in the month compared with 2,692 last year.

GMC deliveries fell 15.0% to 33,058 units from 37,324, due largely to a 21.5% swoon by the Sierra big pickup to 11,224 copies from 13,732. The GMC Terrain 5-passenger CUV, another freshly redesigned model, drew 7,130 buyers, up 9.7% from 6,241 year-ago.

The Cadillac luxury brand turned in a relatively strong performance when compared with a rocky 2017, a year where it watched from the sidelines with a car-heavy portfolio as premium-CUV sales skyrocketed. Cadillac sold 9,895 units against 10,298 last year, with its sole CUV the XT5 enjoying close to 4,000 deliveries. Cadillac fields a second CUV later this year to its lineup, an addition that should help shore up its monthly performance.

Last month GM sold 162,365 light trucks, including CUVs, an 8.2% improvement over 195,827 in the same period last year. Car sales tumbled 32.9% to a nearly 50-year low 36,183 units from 51,805. Fleet sales accounted for 23.8% of GM sales in January, while the automaker’s inventory closed the month at 749,529 units for a 94 days’ supply.

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