Mexico's March auto production falls 11%, exports climb 14%

According to data provided by the Mexican Automobile Industry Association AMIA, the country's car production fell 11% year-on-year in March this year, new car sales rose 11% year-on-year, and exports fell 14%. In March, Mexico's factories produced 160,241 passenger cars, 106,719 light commercial vehicles, and 266,960 vehicles, down 11% year-on-year. In the first quarter of this year, Mexico's cumulative vehicle production reached 805,736, down 5.1% year-on-year. Among the car companies with production capacity in Mexico, Nissan, the highest-producing carmaker, dropped 1.3% year-on-year to 56,866 cars in March, Ford dropped 9.8% year-on-year to 38,080 cars, and Volkswagen dropped 25% year-on-year to 32,817 cars. In March, the sales of new vehicles in the Mexican market were 116,863, an increase of 11.4% year-on-year; of which sales of passenger cars were 76,397 and light commercial vehicles were 40,465. Cumulative new vehicle sales in Mexico climbed 13.4% year-on-year to 347,326 units in the first quarter. Among the major automakers, Nissan, which sold the highest passenger car sales in March, increased 8.3% year-on-year to 20,844 units, Volkswagen climbed 11.9% year-on-year to 17,848 units, and its Volkswagen brand passenger cars climbed 13.3% year-on-year to 14,728 units; ranking third GM's March sales rose 4.9 percent from a year earlier to 13,182 vehicles. In terms of exports, Mexico exported a total of 224,184 new cars to foreign countries in March, down 14.2% year-on-year, including 127,995 passenger cars and 96,189 commercial vehicles. In the first quarter, Mexico exported a total of 657,098 new vehicles, down 4.6 percent year-on-year. Among local automakers with production capacity, Nissan exported 51,228 new vehicles (including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) in March, a slight decrease of 0.3% year-on-year, while GM’s exports dropped sharply by 24.1% year-on-year to 38,949 units, while Ford’s It fell 10.7% year-on-year to 37,133 units.