Vehicle production in Mexico totaled 303,980 units in January 2026, representing a 2.7% drop compared to the same month in 2025, when 312,257 cars were manufactured in the country, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported on Tuesday .
According to the Administrative Registry of the Automotive Industry of Light Vehicles (RAIAVL), of the total manufactured in the first month of the year, light trucks represented 78.5%, with 238,495 units , while the rest corresponded to the manufacture of automobiles, with 65,485.
Last January, the brands that stood out in their production in Mexican plants were Volkswagen with an increase of 66.4%, adding 34,580 units compared to 20,780 in the same cycle of 2025.
General Motors also showed good results in terms of its manufacturing, with a 21.9% increase in the first month of this year with 73,260 units compared to the 60,113 vehicles produced in the same period last year.
Similarly, Ford recorded positive figures in its production with an increase of 8.3%, totaling 35,292 units in January 2026 compared to the same month in 2025, when it manufactured 32,591 vehicles.
Exports are progressing
Export trends moved in the opposite direction to vehicle production during the first month of 2026. Specifically, shipments of light vehicles manufactured in Mexico to other countries in January totaled 224,528 units, representing a 2.3% increase compared to the same month in 2025.
During the period, the United States was the main destination for light vehicle exports with 73.2% , totaling 164,296 units, followed by Canada with 30,155 cars, which represented 13.4% of shipments abroad.
Among the brands with the highest exports in the first month of this year was General Motors, with a 19.8% increase compared to the same period in 2015, totaling 58,457 vehicles. KIA followed with a 15% increase, shipping 19,968 units abroad during that period.
According to the results of the first month of the Mexican automotive industry, the United States remains the main buyer of vehicles manufactured in Mexico, despite the fact that the president of the northern neighbor, Donald Trump, has reiterated that he does not want cars that are manufactured in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Canada is the second largest destination for Mexican vehicle exports, reflecting the level of integration in the automotive sector of the trading partners of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) .
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