General Motors Co posted a 22 percent rise in sales for January, outperforming expectations for the market as a whole on gains in demand for its pickup trucks and SUVs. The sales gain came as a boost in incentive spending by the top U.S. automaker drove traffic to its showrooms and allowed it to pull back less-profitable sales to fleet operators as it lifted sales of its highest-priced trucks compared with a year earlier, Reuters reported. GM shares were up 1 percent after the sales result. GM said its retail sales were up more than 30 percent while fleet sales had dropped 7 percent, considered a positive sign because of the higher profitability of vehicle sales to consumers. GM sold 178,896 cars and trucks under its four brands in January, up from 146,825 a year earlier. The year-earlier tally included sales of 1,727 vehicles under the now-dropped Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Hummer brands.
