Yahoo Finance GM's US sales saw slight uptick after EVs sales leaped 40% from 2023
General Motors on Tuesday reported a gain in new vehicles sold in the United States in the second quarter, powered by continued strong sales of pickups and growing sales of electric vehicles. But GM reported a decline in sales in the first half of 2024 compared with the year-ago period, largely due to a drop in fleet sales.
For the second quarter, GM reported a gain of 0.6% to 696,086 million vehicles sold. For the first half, GM reported its U.S. new vehicle sales declined 0.4% to 1,290,319 million new vehicles sold.
GM spokesman David Caldwell said GM could not yet quantify the impact of an industry-wide disruption to sales because of a cyberattack on dealership software provider CDK Global last month.
“Our dealers who use the CDK platform are working to meet strong customer demand under difficult circumstances," Caldwell said. "Some deliveries may be delayed until Q3."
The automaker reported selling 21,930 EVs in the second quarter, a 40% gain from the same period in 2023, led by sales of Cadillac Lyriq and Chevrolet Blazer EVs.
GM's sales of electric vehicles during the first half totaled 38,355, up 6% from 36,322 EVs sold in the first half of 2023. The EVs GM is selling this year all use its new Ultium propulsion system. Last year at this time, 33,659 of the 36,322 EVs sold were Bolt and Bolt EUV vehicles, which were on old architecture and have since been discontinued. GM will bring the Bolt back using Ultium technology in 2025.
GM: GM keeps US sales crown, surges with 19% gain in 2nd quarter
The year has been challenging for automakers, given that interest rates on auto loans remain high, making affordability an ongoing problem. Then in June the industry was hit by the cyberattack on Chicago-based CDK. The attack forced CDK to shut down most of its systems across the country for its dealership customers, leaving about half of the nation's car dealerships struggling to operate, forcing some to return to the days of pen and paper. The result had J.D. Power and GlobalData forecasting that U.S. retail sales in June across all automakers will be about 5.4% lower than they were in June 2023.
GM President of North America Marissa West said in a statement Tuesday, "We have an incredible portfolio of diverse vehicles and we’re flexible, so we can win as more customers embrace EVs and we can keep winning if theywant to stay with the engine technologies they know.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM's sales grow in 2nd quarter thanks to strong EV gains
