GM Korea's Feb. sales rise 15 pct on strong exports

SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., said Thursday its sales rose 15 percent last month from a year earlier on strong exports.

GM Korea sold a total of 26,191 vehicles in February, up from 22,851 units a year ago despite an extended global chip shortage, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales plunged 54 percent on-year to 1,117 units last month from 2,446, while exports climbed 23 percent to 25,074 from 20,405 over the cited period on increased shipments of its SUV models, it said.

From January to February, its sales were up 19 percent to 42,442 autos from 35,762 units in the same period of last year.

In a two-track strategy, GM Korea sells domestically produced and imported vehicles in Asia's fourth-biggest economy.

Its lineup is composed of two locally assembled models, the Trailblazer SUV and the Trax Crossover, and six imported ones -- the Colorado pickup, the Bolt all-electric car, and the 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 last year.

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.

For the whole of 2022, GM Korea's vehicle sales rose 12 percent to 264,875 units from 237,044 a year earlier.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
(END)