General Motors' U.S. 2021 Q2 sales grew almost 40% despite being 'constrained by very tight inventories'

General Motors’ U.S. vehicle sales for the second quarter of 2021 were slightly lower than what analysts had projected.

The sales have been impacted by low volumes of vehicles on dealership lots and in showrooms, and by the foremost reason: the microchip shortage. Nonetheless, sales have picked up from the same period last year with 688,236 vehicles sold during this year’s second quarter.

“Consumer demand for vehicles is also strong but constrained by very tight inventories,” Elaine Buckberg, GM chief economist, said in a statement, according to CNBC. “We expect continued high demand in the second half of this year and into 2022.”

Sales were up 39.7% but falling a little short of analysts’ projection of between 40% and 43%, CNBC reported. These projections were estimated by Edmunds and Cox Automotive.

GM reported that it ended the second quarter with only 211,974 vehicles in inventory, a 37% drop from the first quarter’s inventory of 334,628. Pre-pandemic, it had about 616,000 units to end 2019. However, the labor strike during the 2019 third quarter to fourth quarter slightly affected the production in that year.  

This year new-vehicle inventory was historically low at the beginning of June, according to Cox Automotive. Unfortunately, the low inventory may spill over until next year.