Zurich. General Motors (GM) sales in Europe reached a volume of 2.04 million vehicles in 2008, with a market share of 9.3 percent. Despite the challenging economic conditions, GM managed to sell over 2 million vehicles for the third consecutive year in the region.
Chevrolet paced the sales performance achieving a historic milestone of over half a million cars sold in Europe. While the industry faced a total volume decrease of 5 percent, Chevrolet grew nearly 11 percent, selling over 507,000 cars and setting a new market share record of 2.3 percent.
“I consider this a success in difficult times. We’re encouraged with our sales performance as we are facing an unprecedented set of economic challenges due to the global economic crisis,” said Carl-Peter Forster, president of GM Europe. “Our decision to keep a strong focus on quality and our growth strategy for Central and Eastern Europe continue on track. We are facing increasing headwinds, but I’m confident that the GM Europe team is capable of continuing to successfully manage the business during this challenging period. We have a host of new products – including the Opel Insignia, awarded European Car of the Year 2009, and the Chevrolet Cruze – and will keep managing our production and costs as tightly as possible.”
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