GM reports 2.2% decrease in third-quarter sales, but EVs make gains

DETROIT — Increases in sales of electric vehicles and small crossovers helped General Motors report slightly better-than-expected sales during the third quarter.

The Detroit automaker reported a 2.2% drop in third-quarter sales compared with a year earlier, slipping to 659,601 vehicles sold. Auto industry forecasters such as Cox Automotive and Edmunds had expected GM’s sales to be down by more than 3% during that time.

GM’s third-quarter sales are expected to be in line with the overall industry. Cox Automotive and Edmunds project third-quarter sales industrywide will be down roughly 2% compared to a year earlier.

GM’s sales were assisted by a roughly 60% year-over-year increase in EVs during the quarter, to roughly 32,100 units sold. Still, EVs made up only 4.9% of the company’s total third-quarter sales.

GM forecasts its market share was 9.5% of the U.S. EV market, up 3 percentage points from the first quarter of this year.

While GM has withdrawn most of its previously announced electric vehicle targets, the automaker believes its EV sales momentum is finally building thanks to an expanding lineup of all-electric vehicles — spanning a price range of roughly $35,000 to more than $300,000.

“We are definitely outstripping the industry in terms of growth, in terms of EVs,” Rory Harvey, GM president of global markets, including North America, told CNBC last month. “We have the most comprehensive EV lineup out of any manufacturer in the industry, in the U.S., at the moment.”

GM’s EV sales were led by the Cadillac Lyriq crossover at roughly 7,224 units sold during the quarter, followed by the Hummer EV pickup and SUV at 4,305 units.

Sales of small, gas-powered crossovers such as the Chevrolet Trax and Buick Envista and Envision also experienced notable increases compared with a year earlier, GM reported.

GM’s total 2024 sales of 1.95 million vehicles through the third quarter were down 1% compared with the first nine months of 2023.

An unknown outlier in the third quarter is how much of an effect Hurricane Helene had on vehicle sales in the South, since it hit the U.S. in late September. It’s also unclear how much a strike at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports will impact sales during the fourth quarter.

GM is one of several automakers to report its third-quarter or September sales on Tuesday. Here are other reported U.S. sales compared with the third quarter of 2023:

• The Hyundai brand reported total sales of 210,971 units, a 5% increase over the third quarter of 2023 and the second best third-quarter in the company’s history. Hyundai’s Genesis luxury brand reported its best-ever third quarter of 20,117 units, up roughly 4% from a year earlier.
• Toyota Motor reported an 8% decrease in third-quarter sales, including a 20.3% decrease in September.
• Nissan reported a sales decline of 2.2% to 212,068 vehicles sold during the third quarter.