Where is General Motors, the former world’s leading automobile group?

In the great era of the glorious thirties, GM sounded like a model of American success power, naturally imposing itself on its soil and even expanding into certain world markets. In 2022, it is clear that the firm is very struggling. Saved from bankruptcy in 2008 with a huge loan from the US state in the wake of a serious global economic crisis, GM gradually returned in the 2010s, marked by the arrival of Mary Barra at the head of the group. A women’s first that did not go into detail: faced with the massive losses accumulated since the beginning of the 2000s, GM continues to throw bags of food into the sea to lighten the ship and prevent it from sinking.

After Saab, abandoned in 2011, it is therefore the turn ofVauxhall (and the English subsidiary Vauxhall), sold to PSA Group. In 20 years, General Motors has continued to get rid of brands deemed disabling or lacking in success: behind the known labels mentioned above, Pontiac (2010), Saturn (2010) or even Holden (Australia, 2020) and Oldsmobile (2004) have also been wiped off the map. In addition to cutting back, GM withdrew completely from Europe in 2019 after the shutdown of Chevrolet, which had never managed to break into the Old Continent. A bitter failure which closed the European chapter following the sale of Opel to the PSA group in 2017.

Today, sales of the American group are plunging to particularly low levels. Is this the result of removing all these marks? Or something else ? In reality, it is above all GM’s excessive dependence on the United States and the disappointing performance in China.

China saves GM with cheap electric!

The life of the Detroit giant has therefore been far from being a long calm river for a few decades already. But the level of sales plunging since 2016 is alarming: GM went from 10 million to 6 million in 2021. Of course, the pandemic and the semiconductor crises have played their part since 2020, but the decline in sales had already started before that.

In detail, we observe that China has become the leading market for General Motors, with a 43% share ahead of the United States at 37%.

General Motors ends 2021 in sixth place worldwide, behind Toyota, volkswagenRenault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, Stellantis and the Hyundai/Kia group. A disappointment for an American monster whose certain figures are worrying. Indeed, GM recognizes the sales of the Chinese Wuling, which is however not a subsidiary: General Motors is only 33% in the capital. Wuling therefore falsely maintains salesespecially since the Asian brand has sold 1.47 million vehicles worldwide, including nearly 500,000 Hongguang Mini EV, the cheapest electric in the world! At the opposite extreme of a Hummer GMC EV sold more than 100,000 dollars… Without Wuling, General Motors, which has lost its leading position in the United States to the benefit of Toyota, would be at the level… of Honda.

Obviously, let’s not forget the 2.33 million Chevrolets and 1.02 million Buicks sold in 2021 (Inovev figures). But the American car is no longer enough to ensure the greatness of GM that we knew before.