According to the news from Zhitong Finance and Economics app, driven by the increased demand for full-size pickups and electric vehicles, General Motors (GM.US) announced its best US quarterly sales data in over three years. The largest automaker in the United States stated that it delivered 696,086 cars in the second quarter, up 0.6% year-on-year, and it is the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2020.
Due to the significant increase in deliveries of Cadillac Lyriq, the company broke the record of selling 21,930 electric vehicles, a 40% year-on-year increase. The delivery volume of full-size pickups reached the highest level since 2021.
However, in the first half of this year, General Motors sold 1,290,319 cars in the United States, a 0.4% year-on-year decline.
General Motors' second-quarter sales are expected to be slightly higher than the entire industry. The automotive industry forecasting institutions, such as Cox Automotive and Edmunds, predict that as retail demand slows down, the industry-wide sales in the second quarter, including July 1st, will remain roughly unchanged from the same period last year.
A situation of unknown anomalies in the second quarter is how much the network attack on CDK Global, the major supplier of software for US car dealers, will affect sales. The ransomware attack on June 19th forced CDK to shut down its dealer management system, affecting nearly half of North America's dealers.
"CDK's cyber attack dealt a heavy blow to sales in the second half of June, one of the busiest and most lucrative times of the month and quarter for dealers," said Jessica Caldwell, director of insights at Edmunds.
General Motors stated in a statement that "dealers using the CDK platform are working hard to meet the strong customer demand in difficult situations. The delivery of some products may be delayed until the third quarter."
Since the cyber attack occurred, dealers, including the largest listed companies in the industry, have had to postpone sales or find alternative ways to sell cars.
All six major listed franchise dealer groups have disclosed their exposure to CDK issues. Five of the six companies, including Asbury Automotive (ABG.US), AutoNation (AN.US), Group 1 Automotive (GPI.US), Lithia Motors (LAD.US), and Sonic Automotive (SAH.US), use CDK as their primary dealer management system provider.
"The good news is, unlike other black swan events that the industry has experienced in the past, sales should not be lost or severely delayed but rather be pushed back to the third quarter," said Caldwell.
General Motors' stock price rose 0.58% to $46.95 on Tuesday. So far this year, the stock has risen by about 31%.