Car Sales Grow by 1.9 Percent in June: AMDA

In June 2022, a total of 90,368 vehicles were sold in Mexico for a 1.9 percent increase year over year, reported the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA). 

“With these figures, the light vehicle market in June was higher than AMDA's expectation of 86,685 units. The estimate showed a percentage difference of 4.1 percent with respect to the observed figure of 90,368 units. This level of sales is still below sales in the same month of 2019, being 15.4 percent lower,” said Guillermo Rosales, President, AMDA, to El Economista. He warned that this increase in sales was likely to be a phase, as the sector is still facing “uncertainty about the recovery of inventory levels.” 

The number of vehicles sold during the first half of 2022 is similar to 2021’s. Last year, vehicle sales during this period amounted to 520,524. This year, they amounted to 518,424 units sold, 0.4 percent less than last year. During this period, the Japanese automotive company Nissan led in sales with 13,975 units, followed by General Motors and Volkswagen with 12,712 and 11,800 cars sold, respectively. 

Supply chain disruptions such as the lack of microchips are still hounding automotive plants. “Inventory uncertainty persists, as well as the inflationary onslaught on the consumption side, with a high level in the price indexes that reflect annual advances both in general (7.88 percent) and vehicles (8.94 percent), with data up to the first fortnight of June 2022,” said Rosales. 

Despite the challenges, the National Auto Parts Industry (INA) association forecasted a growth in production during 2022. Mexico’s assembly plants are expected to produce 3.47 million more vehicles in 2022 than in 2021, reaching 34.7 million units, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). INEGI forecasts a 16.53 percent recovery in vehicle production in comparison to 2021. The forecasted vehicles represent 68 percent of the installed production capacity in Mexico, as the country has a total capacity to produce over 5.32 million units, as reported by MBN. 

Vehicle sales in Mexico depend to a large extent on the availability of materials. “The first (factor affecting manufacture) is the closed production of the supply chain and microchips. Second are transportation and the closure of ports for departure and arrival such as at Long Beach, where there were disruption issues… The third is the war in Ukraine, which increases the supply problem for raw materials such as palladium and neon,” said Francisco González Díaz, President, INA.