James Kim, CEO of GM Korea, poses for a picture at a media event held in Seoul, South Korea on Jan. 17, 2017, to introduce the all new Cruze compact car. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., will again see domestic sales grow this year, its CEO James Kim said Tuesday, adding he was confident the company’s market share will breach the 10-percent mark for the first time in a decade.
“I believe we will do better in 2017 than we did last year,” Kim said at a media event held here to introduce the all new Cruze compact car.
In 2016, the carmaker sold 180,257 cars in the South Korean market, up 13.8 percent from the previous year and breaching the 180,000-mark for the first time in its history.
Kim refused to offer a specific sales target, only saying his company will do better this year.
But when asked whether the company’s market share will reach a double-digit figure, the Korean-American CEO said he was “confident about that.”
The 180,257 GM cars sold in 2016 accounted for 9.9 percent of all vehicles, including imported cars, sold here.
Kim noted the record sales in 2016 were enabled by a series of vehicle launches that included the bestselling Spark minicar and the Malibu midsize sedan.
This year, the all new Cruze, unveiled here for the first time on Tuesday, will help boost the company’s domestic sales, along with the Volt electric vehicle set to be launched here later in the year, he said.
(Yonhap)
