Deliveries at General Motors’ two joint ventures in China plummeted 90 percent to 19,412 last month as the Lunar New Year and coronavirus outbreak left plants idled and showrooms empty of buyers.
February sales at SAIC-GM, GM’s passenger vehicle partnership with SAIC Motor Corp., nosedived 92 percent to 7,612, according to SAIC, a Shanghai-listed company.
Deliveries at SAIC-GM-Wuling, a light-vehicle joint venture between GM and SAIC, plunged 88 percent to 11,800.
In the first two months, sales slumped 52 percent to 133,076 at SAIC-GM and 65 percent to 90,040 at SAIC-GM-Wuling.
As a result, total sales at the two partnerships slumped 58 percent to 223,116 in the two-month period.
SAIC-GM builds and distributes cars and light trucks for GM’s Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac brands, while SAIC-GM-Wuling produces and markets Baojun-badged cars and Wuling-brand microvans.
Because of the viral epidemic which spread from the central China province of Hubei, Beijing extended the Chinese New Year holiday by an extra week to Feb. 9.
In addition, to help contain the epidemic, the local government in Hubei, where SAIC-GM operates a key manufacturing complex, is requiring major industrial employers including automakers to wait until March 11 before resuming output.