GM reports 2.2% drop in third-quarter sales, but electric vehicles are growing

DETROIT — Rising sales of electric vehicles and small crossovers helped General engines report slightly better than expected sales during the third quarter.

The Detroit automaker reported a 2.2% drop in third-quarter sales from a year earlier, falling to 659,601 vehicles sold. Auto industry forecasters such as Cox Automotive and Edmunds expected GM sales to decline by more than 3 percent during that period.

GM’s third-quarter sales are expected to be in line with the broader industry. Cox Automotive and Edmunds expect the industry’s third-quarter sales to be down about 2% from a year earlier.

GM’s sales were supported by a roughly 60% year-over-year increase in electric vehicles during the quarter, to about 32,100 units sold. Yet electric vehicles accounted for just 4.9% of the company’s total sales in the third quarter.

Although GM has withdrawn most of its previously announced EV targets, the automaker believes its EV sales momentum is finally building thanks to a growing lineup of fully electric vehicles, spanning a price range of ‘around $35,000 to over $300,000.

“We’re definitely outpacing the industry in terms of growth, in terms of electric vehicles,” Rory Harvey, GM’s president for global markets, including North America, told CNBC last month. “We currently have the most comprehensive lineup of electric vehicles of any manufacturer in the industry in the United States.”

Sales of small crossovers such as the Chevrolet Trax and the Buick Envista and Envision also saw notable increases from the previous year, GM reported.

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