General Motors Co. announced that it sold 224,314 vehicles in the United States in February 2013, that’s 7 percent more compared with a year ago. Retail sales and fleet sales were both up 7 percent. The fleet mix was 25 percent of total sales, equal to a year ago.

The plug-in vehicle field is getting more and more crowded, but the two long-timers remain barometers for how electric vehicles are being accepted in the US. Last month, the Chevrolet Volt was up and the Nissan Leaf held steady.

The Volt continued to bounce up and down, with February’s numbers – 1,626 sales – on the lower end of the recent extremes (see details here). Last month’s sales were up almost 59 percent over February 2012, when Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts. The Leaf situation remains in flux. Last month, Nissan sold 653 Leaf EVs, pretty much the same as the 650 sold in January.

“The housing sector has now joined auto sales in propelling the U.S. economy forward,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations. “More importantly, the recovery in new home construction is reinforcing the underlying improvement in auto buying conditions, especially for pickups.

“Light vehicle sales have now been running at a mid-15 million unit annual rate since November,” he added. “This sets us up well for the launches of key new products this year, including an all-new generation of Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickups and an all-new Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac CTS.”

The Cadillac CTS, along with the redesigned Buick LaCrosse and Regal, will be unveiled at the New York International Auto Show later this month.

Highlights

All four GM brands posted higher year-over-year sales: Cadillac was up 20 percent; Buick was up 15 percent; GMC was up 10 percent, and Chevrolet was up 5 percent.
Crossover sales increased 17 percent and compact crossovers had their best month ever; truck sales were up 14 percent and car sales were down 4 percent.
Sales of GM’s full-size pickups were up 28 percent to 58,039 units.
The Chevrolet Equinox , GMC Terrain and the redesigned Buick Enclave had their best-ever February sales.
The Chevrolet Spark and Cadillac ATS had their best sales months yet.

General Motors Co. and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM’s brands include Chevrolet and Cadillac, as well as Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling.

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