General Motors' global sales were up 3 per cent in
2012, the company announced Monday in Detroit at the North American
International Auto Show, keeping the revived US carmaker in second
place worldwide, ahead of the fast-gaining Volkswagen group.
GM's sales reached 9.3 million vehicles last year.
VW, which announced its global number late Sunday in Detroit, saw
sales leap 11.2 per cent in 2012 to 9.07 million cars. The German
company sold 8.16 million vehicles in 2011.
The Detroit car show, which kicks off the industry's annual
exhibit calendar, opened its press preview Monday.
The sales record for VW puts the group into a close third for
global sales behind Japan's Toyota Motor Corp and GM.
Toyota's sales worldwide are estimated at 9.7 million cars, though
the company has yet to issue 2012 figures.
VW believes it will take the global sales lead by 2018. The
company is scheduled to open its 100th factory on Tuesday in Silao,
Mexico.
Martin Winterkorn, VW managing chairman, said Volkswagen Group
performed "extremely well in difficult conditions" in 2012.
VW officials refused to offer projections for 2013 sales but
warned of difficult conditions particularly in the company's Western
European home market, where the eurozone is back in recession.
"Tough challenges lie ahead," Winterkorn said.
VW's newest subsidiary, Porsche AG, reported global vehicle sales
up 18.7 per cent last year over its record-setting 2011 deliveries.
The German sports car company's 2012 sales exceeded 141,000 cars, up
from nearly 119,000 a year earlier.
Matthias Mueller, Porsche president and chief executive, called it
"the most successful year in our history."
Porsche became a Volkswagen Group brand in August.
Last week, VW's largest subsidiary brand, Audi, announced 2012
sales up 11.7 per cent to 1.46 million cars.
The German car industry is hungry for a bigger bite of the
resurgent US market, German automotive industry association (VDA)
chief Mattias Wissmann said Monday.
Since the 2007-09 US recession, which saw a crash in car sales and
brought Detroit's Big Three manufacturers to their knees, the US
market has been "amazingly quickly and dynamically revitalized,"
rebounding nearly 40 per cent - some 4 million vehicles - from the
2009 low, Wissmann said.
Sales in the US were up 13 per cent to 14.4 million cars and light
trucks, including more than 1.27 million from German manufacturers,
an increase of more than 21 per cent from 2011. The German market
share in the US rose 0.6 percentage points to 8.8 per cent, Wissmann
said.
Pointing to the new models being introduced this week in Detroit,
which kicks off the global industry's annual exhibition schedule,
Wissmann said that "everything suggests that we should be able grow
for an eighth year in a row in North America."
