General Motors released a report about its April sales last May 2. It announced that the popular auto brand total sales went down to 6 percent. They also reported that even its retail sales were down to 4 percent, fleet sales down to 11 percent and daily deliveries averaged 20 percent.
It was unlikely for General Motors to reveal those numbers especially when it only expected that the sales will go down roughly by 2 percent. The announcement somehow affected its share in the stock market. The shares dropped by 2.92 percent to $33.2 at 7:45 PM May 2.
General Motors mentioned that its April sales were driven by the strong sales of brands like Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. The popular brands had over 244,406 light cars, crossovers, and trucks sold in a month.
General Motors' US Vice President on Sales Operations, Kurt McNeil shared that they see "crossovers becoming an even bigger part of the industry and GM over the next five years." Also, General Motors' Chief Economist, Mustafa Mohatarem had a very positive attitude towards the slump in its sales. He stated that the "rising wages, low inflations and interest rates, low fuel prices and consumer confidence, you have everything you need for auto sales to weather the headwinds and remain at or near historic highs."
Reports noted that with the growing inventories and retail demand slipping, both the automakers and dealers need to conduct aggressive discounting to push more customers to buy. General Motors did that. It was one of the auto brand's' that provided more incentives last month.
General Motors were able to prove an average of $3,499 per vehicle. It was a $100 higher that the incentives provided in April 2009. But analysts shared that using incentives while retail demand are quite low will most likely lead to higher prices for automakers in the coming year.
Yet, General Motors is not the only auto brand company experiencing this sales issue. In fact, for the longest time, the light vehicle sales in America dropped by 4.7 percent in April. It has been 4 consecutive months that the sales have been declining. Car reviewers are foreseeing that the sales will shift towards SUVs which is currently in demand. With General Motors SUV lineup, its sales will hopefully pickup in the middle of the year.
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