Mexico City, Mexico — After four years of negative numbers, car sales in Mexico have reported a growth. Guillermo Rosales, deputy general director of the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors, says the sector sold 95,487 units, 9 percent more than in March 2020, when several vehicle plants closed and the pandemic caused a lockdown.
The last time the sector reported a positive figure was in March 2017, when sales grew 17 percent. Guillermo Rosales attributed this recent growth to the increase in social mobility, the commercial promotions of the assemblers and their distribution networks as well as to the opening of new sales floors in Mexico City, State of Mexico, Puebla and Morelos.
“The March result was higher than the AMDA’s expectation of 83,684 units,” said Rosales. Most of the brands, 20 of the 30 that report their monthly sales to Inegi, registered higher sales in March. Among the volume brands, Jac was the one that grew the most, 128 percent compared to March 2020.
Others such as Subaru and Mitsubishi reported increases of more than 70 percent while Suzuki achieved an increase of 56 percent and Hyundai, 48. Among the premium brands were three that posted notable increases, Jaguar who nearly tripled their sales and Volvo and Audi who doubled them.
Although brand managers anticipate higher sales this year, the global shortage of semiconductors, which has affected the supply of several models in addition to the “slow” economic recovery and delays in the vaccination program, will encourage the restoration of new car sales. “It will take several years to regain pre-pandemic levels,” Rosales said.
Despite the positive result in March, falls recorded in January and February affected the quarterly closing. Between January and March, the sector sold 259,013 vehicles, 12.7 percrent less compared to the first quarter of 2020 when they sold 296,731 units.
The AMDA expects to close the year with just over a million units sold, an increase of around 10 percent compared to the 949,353 sold in 2020.