GM China sales up 7.1% in 2016

General Motors Co and its joint venture partners sold 3.87 million vehicles in China in 2016, up 7.1% from the previous year, cementing the country’s position as the US automaker’s top market for a fifth consecutive year, Reuters reports. The strong rise for the year comes in spite of a 2.3% year-on-year fall in GM China sales for December to 434,799 vehicles, according to a spokeswoman, who did not elaborate on the reason for the decline. Sales of GM’s budget Baojun brand, developed for China with JV partners SAIC Motor Corp and Guangxi Automobile Group Co Ltd, that surged nearly 50% last year helped drive growth. GM has pledged to introduce more models in the fast growing sport-utility vehicle and multi-purpose vehicle segments by 2020.