General Motors Corp.'s global sales fell 1 percent in this year's first quarter, with sales in the critical North American region dragging down record gains around the world, the automaker announced Wednesday.
The drop put GM in second place behind Toyota Motor Corp. in global sales. Toyota sold 2.41 million vehicles in the first quarter, the automaker said Wednesday. GM sold 2.25 million cars and trucks around the world through March.
“We obviously want to win,” said Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global markets and industry analyst. “We'd like to be No. 1 in sales at the end of the year and were going to compete hard for every sale to do that.”
GM ended 2007 a sliver ahead of Toyota. GM said it sold 9,369,524 cars and trucks worldwide in 2007, and Toyota said it sold 9.366 million — a gap of only about 3,000 vehicles. Toyota beat GM in last year's first quarter as well, but GM pulled even by the end of the year.
More of GM's sales in the first quarter — 64 percent — were outside the United States than at any other time in GM's history.
“GM posted record sales in three of our four regions driven by continued strong demand in emerging markets,” John Middlebrook, GM vice president, global sales, service and marketing operations, said in a statement. “We continue to see a higher percentage of our business coming from outside the developed markets.”
Sales were up 6 percent in GM's Asia Pacific region. They rose nearly 20 percent the Latin America, Africa and Middle East region. Sales in Europe were up 3 percent to a record high.
North American sales, where the U.S. auto industry is struggling with what's expected to be the slowest sales year in more than a decade, were down 10 percent.
Industry sales around the globe were up 3 percent to 17.99 million vehicle sales worldwide. GM expects the global market to hit about 73 million in 2008, a 2 percent increase from last year.
Troubles in the U.S. market have been mostly isolated to North America and some of Europe, Mike DiGiovanni said. “We are running the business assuming we are seeing a more challenging environment” in North America.
