GM Sales Expected to Surge in January

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 27, 6:48AM EST

The astonishing recalls that General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) had last year do not appear to have hurt sales this month. GM is expected to have a large increase in sales from January 2014 to January 2015.

According to Kelley Blue Book (KBB), a rising tide will lift most boats in January. The car research firm’s experts wrote:

In January, new light-vehicle sales, including fleet, are expected to hit 1,140,000 units, up 12.9 percent from January 2014 and down 24.2 percent from December 2014.

GM’s sales are expected to rise 19.5% for the period to 205,000. Its market share, at 18%, will continue to be well below the 25% it had several years before its bankruptcy. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU), which has been the hot manufacturer for the past two years, is expected to have a sales increase of 14% to 145,000. Toyota Motor Corp.’s (NYSE: TM) sales are expected to rise 12.7% to 165,000. This means the largest Japanese manufacturer will nearly catch Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), the sales of which are expected to rise 12.1% to 172,000.

Among the other largest companies based on U.S. sales, Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s (NYSE: HMC) sales are expected to rise 11.3% to 112,000. Nissan’s are expected to rise 8.3% to 98,000. Hyundai-Kia’s will be 88,000, or 8.6% higher. Perennial loser Volkswagen will not recover, according to KKB. Its sales will rise less than those of the U.S. market, up only 9% to 40,000.

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The U.S. continues to be the second largest car market in the world, behind China. America and China are joined by the European Union as the three largest car markets based on unit sales. Growth in Europe has been harmed by the recession there, although sales have begun to turn positive. The Chinese market’s growth has been spotty because of changes in government incentives and, perhaps, air pollution. The U.S. market has been the one unqualified success based on growth. Perhaps that is due to an overall recovery in consumer spending as unemployment drops and gross domestic product improves.

In short, America will remain the region with the most potential for car sales growth for a third year.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.