GM Korea’s Sept. sales rise 6.6 pct on solid exports

GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., said Wednesday its sales rose 6.6 percent last month from a year earlier, helped by solid exports. GM Korea sold 38,967 vehicles in September, up from 36,544 units a year ago on increased shipments of the Trax Crossover and the Trailblazer SUV, the company said in a statement. Domestic sales plunged 26 percent on-year to 1,958 units last month from 2,632, while exports increased 9.1 percent to 37,009 from 33,912 over the cited period, it said. From January to September, its sales climbed 7.2 percent to 346,587 autos from 323,271 units in the same period of last year. Domestic sales fell 34 percent to 19,228 in the first nine months from 29,056 a year ago, while exports gained 11 percent to 327,359 from 294,215. In a two-track strategy, GM Korea sells domestically produced and imported vehicles in Asia's fourth-biggest economy. Its current lineup is composed of two locally assembled models, the Trailblazer SUV and the Trax Crossover, and five im ported ones -- the Colorado pickup, Equinox, Traverse and Tahoe SUVs, as well as the GMC brand's Sierra Denali pickup. The Spark mini car, Trax compact SUV and the Malibu midsize sedan were part of the lineup, but the company stopped their production in 2022. Most of the models currently sold in South Korea are from the Chevrolet brand. The Cadillac brand models are available here as well. GM Korea plans to add more GMC brand models to its lineup, depending on market demand. Source: Yonhap News Agency