GM posts slight sales increase, record EV sales in second quarter

General Motors Co. saw a 0.6% increase in year-over-year sales in the second quarter with a record 21,930 deliveries of electric vehicles.

In its best quarter since the fourth quarter of 2020, GM's U.S. dealers sold 696,086 new vehicles from April through June compared with 691,978 vehicles a year ago. The automaker noted its retail sales, or sales to individual customers, increased 4% in the quarter and 5% in the first half of the year. Fleet sales dropped 10% in the second quarter and are down 16% in first half because of fewer sales to rental companies, GM said.

In the first half of 2024, GM has sold 1,290,319 vehicles, down 0.4% year-over-year. It sold 38,355 EVs though June.

GM's EV sales in the quarter surpassed the previous record of 20,000 sold in the first quarter of 2023, a milestone that was supported by sales of the since-discontinued electric Chevrolet Bolt, which was not based on GM's Ultium EV platform.

The automaker's Ultium EVs are starting to see gains, especially the Cadillac Lyriq with 7,294 sales, up from 1,348 sold in the second quarter of 2023.

In June, GM narrowed its 2024 EV production goal by at least 50,000 units to between 200,000 and 250,000, down from 300,000.

GM CFO Paul Jacobson said the move was "100% demand driven" since the automaker overcame issues it had with battery module supply and was "on track" to produce 300,000 EVs this year.

GM said its retail EV registrations are up 17% year-to-date, outpacing the retail industry’s 10% gain, with California, Texas, Florida, New York and Michigan noted as the top states for GM's EVs. By the end of 2024, GM will have 10 EV nameplates.

"We have an incredible portfolio of diverse vehicles and we’re flexible, so we can win as more customers embrace EVs and we can keep winning if they want to stay with the engine technologies they know," said Marissa West, GM senior vice president and president of North America, in a statement.

The new Chevrolet Blazer EV is picking up steam after a stop sale earlier this year for software issues. Dealers sold 6,634 in the second quarter, up from the 600 delivered in the first quarter. GM sold 1,013 of the brand-new Chevrolet Equinox EV. The Silverado EV had 2,196, which includes sales of the RST retail version and Work Truck commercial product.

At GMC, dealers sold 2,929 electric Hummer EV pickup and SUVs, up from the 1,668 sold in the first quarter. And GM delivered 490 of the BrightDrop electric delivery vans, up from the 298 sold a year ago.

Meanwhile, on the internal combustion engine side of the business, GM noted its full-size pickups had their best quarterly total sales since 2021.

The GMC and Buick brands saw quarterly sales increases of 2.3% and 6.3%, respectively. Chevy and Cadillac saw both saw slight declines of 0.4% at Chevy and 1.1% at Cadillac.

With more competitors in the market, EV leader Tesla Inc. reported a 5% second-quarter decline.