General Motors Finishes 2012 with Record Sales, Expects More in 2013

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) (GM) (Detroit, Michigan), one of world's largest automotive manufacturers, finished 2012 with strong vehicle sales numbers. GM's Chevrolet unit sold more than 4.95 million vehicles in 2012, pushing the company's annual global sales to a record 9.2 million vehicles.

In December, automotive sales of new cars and trucks in the U.S. increased significantly. Global automotive sales, estimated at 14.5 million units in 2012, increased 13% over only a year before, with December sales ringing in for the strongest month of the year. GM's sales success was due partly to the variety of incentives the company offered throughout the year, coupled with the improving unemployment situation, the improving housing market, and the fact that U.S. banks were offering financing at lower interest rates.

GM plans to refurbish 70% of its North American models in 2013. The company hopes to maintain the pace it set in 2012 when it comes to overall sales. The automaker will be facing a tough road however, as Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM) (Tokyo, Japan) has become the No. 1 automaker for annual sales. Meanwhile, Volkswagen (PINK:VLKAY) (Wolfsburg, Germany) is pushing hard to obtain a larger portion of the market and has become a serious threat to GM's plans for sales dominance.

In December 2012, the U.S. Treasury Department indicated it would sell off its 32% stake in GM within 15 months, selling 200 million shares back to the company for $5.5 billion. These shares were given to the government as part of the automotive bailout and subsequent bankruptcy by GM in 2008 and 2009. The government also plans to sell the remainder of its shares within the next year, depending on market conditions. With approximately $32 billion in cash as of September, the company is able to buy back the stock from the Treasury Department.

GM announced plans to invest $1.5 billion to expand operations in North America in 2013. The automaker has continued to invest in its infrastructure over the last several years in order to maintain the level of production that is necessary to compete with other automakers for a larger piece of the global market, especially the North American market. The company is predicting that global demand will reach 15 million to 15.5 million units range by the end of 2013. This will require GM and the other automakers to carefully plan their proposed production increases as to not flood the market and prematurely halt the sales highs that they have been riding for the last couple of years.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.