Detroit – General Motors is shattering sales records, besting competitors and making money almost everywhere in the world.
Those successes will amount to little, however, if the automaker can’t resuscitate sales in its money-losing North American operation – something GM says isn’t likely until at least 2008.
GM sold 2.4 million vehicles around the world in the second quarter, 1.4 million outside the United States, according to sales data released Thursday.
On a worldwide basis, 2007 is shaping up to be the second-best sales year in GM’s history. Take the United States out of the equation, and GM shattered its quarterly sales record.
But the United States is anything but out of the equation.
“This market is not an optional market; you can’t walk away from it,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. “They’ve got this big boil that, unless it is taken care of, it can destroy the whole game.”
Look no further than GM’s first quarter to see the importance of U.S. sales. Financial losses concentrated in GM’s home market all but wiped out the more than $300 million in profits generated by the automaker in three regions outside North America. GM finished the quarter barely in the black with $62 million in profits.
GM sales analyst Paul Ballew ticked off an impressive list of statistics: GM sales increased in every region outside North America in the first half of the year, with Latin America up 18.6 percent, Asia Pacific up 14.3 percent and Europe up 5.3 percent.
Second-quarter sales outside the United States grew 8 percent to a new quarterly record, outpacing the industry average growth rate of 6 percent.
“GM is very rapidly becoming a global company,” Cole said.
Toyota, which outpaced GM in global sales for the first time in history in the first quarter of the year, also reports growth around the world. The Japanese carmaker is on pace to take the No. 1 title for all of 2007, with projected sales of 9.34 million units to GM’s estimated 9.2 million.
Toyota’s global sales grew 10 percent in 2006 to 9.02 million vehicles.
