Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, as well as their Buick, Chevrolet, Wuling and new Baojun brands, all set April sales records while Cadillac set a monthly sales record.

GM announced earlier it would build a new factory to make the brand's cars in China.

The strong performance took GM's sales for the first four months of 2013 to a record 1,078,243 units, an increase of 10.9%. It was the first time GM passed 1m unit sales for the year as early as April.

Shanghai GM's domestic sales in April were up 29.2% year on year to 121,559 units, SAIC-GM-Wuling's sales in China were up 5.9% to 134,815 units and FAW-GM's sales were down 0.3% to 5,124 units.

Buick sales totalled 66,923 units in April, up 23.9%. The original Excelle family had sales of 25,336 units, an increase of 9.3%, while sales of the [current Opel Astra-based] Excelle XT and GT increased 53.7% to 18,413 units.

Chevrolet sales in China rose 21.7% last month to 50,559 units. Sales of the Cruze, the brand's most popular model, were up 8.6% to 17,277 units. It was followed by the Sail, which sold 15,409 units, and the Malibu, which sold 8,786 units.

Cadillac sales in April were up 99.1% from last April to 4,077 units. It benefited from strong demand of 2,195 units for the SRX luxury utility vehicle and 1,802 units for the new, locally assembled XTS luxury sedan.

Wuling sales in China rose 5.7% in April to 124,556 units. Sales by the Baojun passenger car brand rose 70.5% to 10,259 units.

Between January and April 2013, Shanghai GM had domestic sales growth of 16.8% to 503,587 units and SAIC-GM-Wuling generated domestic sales growth of 6.7% to 551,892 units. Both were records. FAW-GM's local sales were down 1.8% to 21,653 units.