The 174,306 vehicles sold by General Motors Co. and its joint ventures in China in February was a company record for the month, it said Wednesday, though well below the 219,192 vehicles sold in January.

That could reflect slower sales due to the Lunar New Year holiday, but also a softening in demand for small cars that have powered the company’s growth in China, the world’s biggest auto market, over the past year.

The bulk of GM’s were still by SAIC-GM-Wuling, GM’s minivehicle joint venture, which sold 110,315 units, up 37.7 percent from the year before, the company reported.

Sales by GM’s flagship in China, Shanghai GM, climbed 65.7 percent to 58,182 units, with demand for Chevrolet models accounting for more than 40,000 of that total. Sales of Cadillacs more than tripled to over 900 units.

GM’s sales in China climbed nearly 74 percent from a year earlier in the first two months of the year, to 393,498 units.

Analysts expect sales growth to slow this year, though so far the market has kept relatively strong momentum.

Source : Konaxis