GM to Issue Quarterly Sales Data, Ends Monthly Sales Reports

Automaker General Motors Co. (GM) will start issuing quarterly vehicle sales report and cease its decades-long tradition of presenting monthly sales data that analysts and investors have used to monitor the health of the US car market.

By breaking from tradition, GM hopes to provide investors, the public, and media a less volatile, longer-term metric to evaluate its performance.

GM Vice President of US Sales and Operations Kurt McNeil stated that a 30-day period is not enough to reflect the Detroit-based corporation’s complex business in a highly competitive market.

McNeil’s statement cited product launches and unusual weather as some of the factors that can tilt monthly figures up or down without necessarily suggesting anything about the health of GM or the broader industry.

GM executives have been frustrated about the comparisons of monthly US sales data among rival automakers being unclear by short-term discount program, and by differences in the way vehicles are sold in large quantities to rental car fleets.       

The company has depended largely on sales of high-margin pickup truck and sport utility vehicle (SUV) sales to raise profits. During the first couple of months this year, GM’s US sales dropped 3.2 percent, indicating a 6.8 percent fall in retail sales per customer.  

A spokesman for GM said its decision ends a nine-month internal study, which was initially meant to identify ways to ease internal workload related to preparing monthly sales results.  

The carmaker’s move also creates the opportunity for other auto firms to switch to quarterly US sales reports.

Until the early 1990’s, several carmakers posted sales data every ten days. This changed when former Chrysler Corp., Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V’s subsidiary, started to issue results on a monthly basis, prompting other competitors to adapt the practice in the next three years.        

Excluding electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Inc. and other exotic car companies, every auto firm have monthly sales schedule.   

Reduction on GM’s Transparency and Performance

GM's decision to move out of the monthly cycle have some investors and analysts concerned that less reporting will also reduce the company’s transparency and performance, hiding important developments until its too late to fix them.  

Analysts and investors have relied on US vehicle sales to gauge the health of the world’s second-largest auto market and to determine consumer confidence in the US economy overall.

Given that monthly sales data helped analysts and investors keep track of the economy’s condition, if that information had been delayed by three months, it might have caused a more serious concern to the markets.

Nevertheless, even without GM’s report, other sources including dealers, suppliers, and analysts will keep on providing information on how auto sales are moving ahead throughout a quarter, so as to not leave investors uninformed about GM’s condition.

Major vehicle manufacturers are set to report their March US new car sales on Tuesday, which will be GM’s final monthly report. Its first sales data for the second quarter would be released in July 3 and will be separately disclosed from its quarterly reports to investors.

Shares of GM were up by 2.4 percent to $36.63 on Tuesday.

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