GM's vehicle sales jumped 14% in 2023 — best year since 2019

General Motors (GM) reported Q4 US sales climbed marginally in a strike-hampered quarter. The good news? Overall sales for the year rose 14.1%, and the company sees momentum building in 2024.

For the quarter, GM reported that US sales increased slightly by 0.3% compared to the same period a year ago with roughly 625,176 cars and trucks sold. The results were impacted by the UAW labor strike, which pushed into the start of the quarter. Following the end of the strike, the company needed several weeks for operations to come back online and hit full productivity.

However, there were some standouts in the quarter including the Buick Enclave (up 41.6%), Encore GX (up 52.0%), Chevrolet Equinox (up 20.1%), Chevrolet Camaro (up 15.8%), and GMC Sierra pickups (up 9.8%). Some vehicles like the midsize Chevrolet Colorado pickup (down 39.8%), Suburban (down 36.8%), and Cadillac XT4 (down 17.2), may have been impacted by work stoppages.

Overall, GM said sales jumped 14.1% to 2.6 million vehicles for 2023, making it the company's best year since 2019. The automaker also grew its market share by 0.3% to 16.3% overall in the US. GM said it was number one in full-size pickup sales in the US (841K units) and number one in full-size SUV sales (245K units).

"In 2024, we expect industry sales to remain strong and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead as we expand customer choice with new vehicles like the Chevrolet Equinox EV and Cadillac Escalade IQ," said Marissa West, GM senior vice president of sales, in a statement.

GM forecasts total US auto industry sales to hit 16 million in 2024, which would be a strong improvement post-pandemic; only 13.4 million vehicles were sold in 2022, the lowest in a decade.

As for its EV ambitions, GM has suffered some hiccups with its once-aggressive rollout (even as the Equinox EV and Escalade IQ are coming out this year.)

The Chevrolet Blazer EV, named MotorTrend’s SUV of the year for 2024, has been recalled due to software issues and was a given a "stop sale" order to dealers.

Read more: Are electric cars more expensive to insure?

GM also lost federal EV tax credit eligibility for electric vehicles like the aforementioned Blazer EV, Cadillac LYRIQ, upcoming Equinox EV, and Silverado EV. GM separately said Wednesday it would be offering $7,500 incentives for those cars to boost sales while the EVs are ineligible for the tax credit. GM said it will work to change its supply chains for battery components in order to comply with the federal tax credit by early 2024.

GM, which abandoned its goal of building 400,000 EVs through mid-2024, said it still expects to have 1 million units of EV capacity by 2025 and achieve mid-single digit EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margins by then as well.

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

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