Largely overlooked in last month's sweeping management reorganization of the new post-bankruptcy General Motors Co. was a recentering of power to Shanghai.

Nick Reilly went from overseeing GM's Asia operations based in Shanghai to overseeing all of the automaker's operations outside of North America, except for Opel -- ending decades of bureaucratic silos that had carved up the globe into regional divisions.

So while GM's Canada and Mexico operations report through the United States, most of the rest of the world reports through China.

BEIJING -- General Motors Corp. said Monday its sales in China surged 77.7% in July from a year earlier to 144,593 vehicles, a record for the month in the company's second-largest market.

"This was GM China's best July ever, extending an uninterrupted series of single-month sales records that started in January 2009," GM said in a statement.

China, which overtook the U.S. in January as the world's largest auto market by sales volume, is playing a key role in GM's recovery after it emerged from bankruptcy protection last month.

The company's sales in China during the January-July period rose 42.8% from a year earlier to 959,035 units. GM didn't provide year-earlier figures. It sold 143,294 vehicles in China in June.

DETROIT — About 6,000 General Motors Co. blue-collar workers have taken the latest round of early retirement and buyout offers, but it fell short of the company's goal, meaning more layoffs are likely.

GM has about 54,000 factory workers and wants to end the year with 40,500, a cut of about 13,500. Monday's report means that about 7,500 too few workers took the offers, setting the stage for more layoffs.

The automaker announced in June and July that it would close 15 U.S. factories employing about 22,000 workers by end of 2012.

DETROIT--General Motors Co. said its new Chevrolet Volt electric car is expected to get 230 miles per gallon in city driving as the auto maker outlined a raft of product introductions.

The Volt is at the forefront of GM's efforts to reinvigorate a line-up that has lost market share in the U.S., with 25 new vehicles due to be launched by 2011. At that rating, the Volt would dwarf any offering from a mass-market brand, including Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius. It also could deliver a major boost to GM efforts to cultivate a green image, a key element of the company's restructuring efforts.

The Volt is scheduled for domestic launch in 2010, and the mileage and range guidance reflects new guidelines for electric cars set by the Environmental Protection Agency.