GM China vehicle sales up 77.7 percent in July

General Motors Co GM.UL said on Monday its China vehicles sales in July jumped 77.7 percent from a year earlier, extending an uninterrupted series of single month sales records since January.

General Motors, which compete with Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE) and others globally, in July sold 144,593 vehicles in China, its second biggest market, it said in a statement.

From January to July, the Detroit automaker sold 959,035 vehicles in the country, up 42.8 percent from a year earlier, it said.

"The GM family has been among the major beneficiaries of the sales momentum in China that began building in February," said Kevin Wale, president and managing director for the automaker's China operations.

China's auto market, which overtook the United States as the world's largest in January, has been a leading bright spot in the struggling global auto industry as government incentives spurred a pick-up in demand.

The country's passenger car sales jumped 48 percent in June to 872,900, lifted by a halving of sales tax on small cars and subsidies for buyers in rural areas.

Shanghai GM, the Detroit automaker's flagship car venture with SAIC Motor Corp (600104.SS), sold 56,489 models in July, up 60.6 percent, it said.

Monthly sales of the Chevrolet Cruze came to 8,764 units, achieving its best single month since it entered the market in April. Sales of the new Buick LaCROSSE and the new Regal in the upper-medium segment exceeded 10,000 units, it said.

SAIC-GM-Wuling, a three-way commercial vehicle tie-up between GM, SAIC and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile, came to 87,925 units in July, up 90.7 percent.

Sales of Wuling Sunshine minivan, China's best-selling minivan, rose 72.7 percent to 50,564 units, it added.

"We have additional new products on their way in the coming months that will enable us to keep up with the growing demand for high-quality personal transportation," Wale said in the statement.

GM had said it planned to roll out 30 new or revamped models in China up to 2014 from 2009, including 10 Buick and Chevrolet models this year and next year.

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