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GM US January Sales Portend Good Things Ahead

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2015 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ Z71 on location

2015 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ Z71
© General Motors

General Motors came extremely close to pulling down sales totaling 3 million units in the United States last year. If all GM needs in order to cross that coveted threshold once again in 2015 is marginal year-over-year improvement, it would appear that the brand is well on track to shattering that expectation.

GM kicked off 2015 with 202,786 sales in the United States in January, an 18.3% increase over the 171,486 unit mark from the year prior. The continued demand for pickup trucks and crossovers was a major accelerant for GM’s success, leading to significantly increased sales for the GMC and Chevrolet brands.

“Consumers feel very good because more people are working, the U.S. economy is expanding and fuel prices are low,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations. “Consumer and commercial demand for trucks and crossovers is really driving our business, and our move into the small crossover segment with the Chevrolet Trax and Buick Encore, and mid-size pickups with the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, was well-timed.”

Chevrolet carried the lion’s share with 142,882 sales in January, guided largely by the success of the Silverado, Equinox, Cruze, and Malibu.

GMC added 35,671 units, up 28.6% year-over-year. The Sierra accounted for more than a third of all GMC sales, the Terrain added 8,844 sales, and the Acadia added 5,898 sales.

Despite coming in third out of all GM’s brands with 12,553 sales, Buick was down 5.5% from January 2014. Cadillac was up 2.6% in fourth place with 11,680 units sold.

Should GM’s 2015 sales remain 18.3% better for the full 12 months of the year, it will have sold 3,472,114 vehicles, putting it closer to 3.5 million sales in the US for 2016. In order to simply cross 3 million, GM will only need to perform 2% better.