GM's Q3 sales down 19.2% in China

General Motors and its Chinese joint ventures sold 623,500 vehicles in China in the third quarter this year, down 19.2 percent from the same period in 2020.

"Sales were impacted by the ongoing global semiconductor supply chain disruption," said GM, the largest carmaker in the United States, in a statement on Monday.

Four of its five brands available in China saw precipitous drops in their third quarter sales compared with the same quarter in 2020.

Baojun, of its joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling, delivered 39,600 vehicles in the quarter, slumping 60.4 percent year-on-year.

It was followed by Chevrolet and Buick, both of which saw their sales fall over one third.

Cadillac, GM's premium brand, delivered 59,500 units from July to September this year, down 8.7 percent year-on-year.

Wuling was the only exception. Its deliveries totaled 309,400 units in the quarter, up 11.8 percent from the same quarter last year.

The Hong Guang MINI EV posted a record quarter with sales reaching 99,000 units. It remained the best-selling NEV model in China.

Wuling's Asta SUV, the newest product bearing the brand's silver badge, achieved deliveries of about 3,300 units following its launch in September, said GM.

The new energy vehicles of its other marques also performed well. Deliveries of Buick's Velite 6 rose 36 percent to about 8,500 units.

Deliveries of Chevorlet's Menlo EV, the brand's first electric model, tripled to about 1,000 units in the quarter.

GM said it will step up its efforts toward achieving its global vision of a future of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion in China.

The carmaker said presales of the first Ultium-architecture model for the Chinese market, the electric Cadillac Lyric SUV, will start later this year.

GM recently announced it will invest $300 million in Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta to accelerate the development of next-generation self-driving technologies tailored for local consumers.