Analyses
9 sep 19

Car sales continue to fall in Mexico, but for how long?

In January-July, new vehicle sales in Mexico was down 6.5% compared to the same period last year, prolonging the downward trend in the country which started about two years ago.

While sales dropped 7.1% year-over-year to 1.42 million units in 2018, sales during the first seven months of 2019 totaled 744,387 units (down 6.5%), according to Mexico’s auto industry association AMIA.

Despite sales in January increasing 1.9% year-over-year to 111,255 units, February-July reported seven consecutive decreases. February was down 5.3% to 103,692 units, March (-1.2% to 117,135 units), April (-10.7% to 98,118), May (-10.8% to 102,094), June (-11.1% to 106,411), and July showed a 7.5% fall to 105,712 units.

The Brands

In July, Nissan was the best-selling brand with 20,975 cars leaving showrooms, down 13.5% compared to the same month last year. Coming in second was Chevrolet which was down 5.8% to 16,496 units, followed by Volkswagen (-7% to 11,863), Toyota (up 14.1% to 9,356), and Kia of which sales rose 1.4% to 7,615 units.

In January-July, Nissan sales were down 14.5% to 152,231 units, Chevrolet (-5.8% to 111,974), Volkswagen (-8.6% to 80,101), Toyota (-2.6% to 58,564), and Kia rose 3.3% to 54,717 units.

The Models

In terms of the best-selling models, the Nissan Versa compact sedan is leading the pack with sales rising 9.4% to 7,596 units in July.


2019 Nissan Versa (source: Nissan)

It is followed by the Chevrolet Beat subcompact hatch rising 4.8% to 5,900 units, Chevrolet Aveo sedan/hatch (-15.3% to 5,644), Nissan NP300 pickup (-6.9% to 4,865), and Nissan March subcompact hatch which saw sales dropping by 11.9% to 3,646 units in July.

Considering the January-July period, Versa Sales were down 8.2% to 46,794 units, Beat (+3.6% to 40,687), Aveo (-0.1% to 38,242), NP300 (-11.7% to 34,541), and March sales were down 2.2% to 29,703 units.

Regardless of the slowdown in the automobile industry, Mexico’s economy has not gone into the red in the last couple years. While GDP in 2018 rose 5.2% year-over-year to 1.22 trillion, GDP during the first quarter of 2019 showed a slight uptick of 0.1% to 244 million.

In the wake of the two-year decline in vehicles sales, some local media reports are predicting that the automobile market will make a comeback in the 2020-2025 period.

To learn more about vehicle and mobility markets in Latin America and for networking with your peers, stop by the Fleet LatAm Conference and Training taking place 23-25 September in Mexico City. See you there!

 

Authored by: Daniel Bland