El Economista – Mexico City
Mexico achieved record production and export volumes of light vehicles last April and double-digit percentage growthwhich confirms the boom path of the automotive industry.
The National Institute of Geography and Statistics (Inegi) reported that automotive companies manufactured 358,575 light vehicles, of which more than 70% are SUVs and Pick-ups.
In April, production increased 21.74% year-on-year, which meant 64,025 additional units. This figure already includes new models from various brands, including General Motors, which assembles its two electric SUVs and one model for Honda, also electric, the Prolongue SUV.
While Kia, with the new K3 production that replaced the Río, already exceeds the 2023 production. In addition, production of the Hyundai Tucson began.
“The production and export results were excellent for the month of April 2024. It is the strongest April since 2005 for both production and export, the year in which the Administrative Registry of the Automotive Industry began. 358,575 units were produced, representing a growth of 21.7% compared to the figures reported for the same month of 2023and a growth of 5.7% for the accumulated figures from January to April 2024,” highlighted the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (Amia).
Adriana Ramírez, Amia representative, commented that SUVs represent 46.9%, followed by pickup trucks with 28.3%, compact cars with 18.8%, subcompact cars with 3.3%, and luxury cars with 2.6%. % and 0.1% minivans.
The capacity use of the production plant was 89.2%, the best result since the pandemic, derived from the demand for pickups and SUVs..
One of the improvements that the industry had was the manufacture of electric cars, which contributed to increasing automotive production, since from January to April 25,701 units of the Mach-e and Blazer electric models were manufactured, Ramírez mentioned.
