During January 2025, 312,257 units were manufactured in Mexico , which meant an increase of 1.7% compared to the same month in 2024, according to what the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) announced this Monday .
Adriana Ramírez , manager of Economic Studies for the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA) , stressed in a press conference that the production by segment was 50.6% SUVs. This was followed by pickups with 23% , compacts with 19.4% , subcompacts with 3.7% , luxury with 3.1% , and minivans with 0.2 percent .
According to information from the Administrative Registry of the Light Vehicle Automotive Industry (RAIAVL) of Inegi, at the end of the first month of this year, light trucks represented 73.8% of production with 230,383 units .
Meanwhile, automobile manufacturing accumulated 26.2% in that period with 81,874 units.
With an increase of 243.1% in January 2025, Toyota stood out in its national production compared to the same month in 2024, while KIA reported an increase of 53.8% in that period and Mazda of 9.4 percent .
Vehicle exports fall in January
Inegi also announced that the export of light vehicles manufactured in Mexico was 219,414 units , which represented a drop of 13.7% in January 2025 compared to the same month in 2024, when 254,367 vehicles were sent abroad .
The United States was the main destination for light vehicle exports, with 83.6% (183,321 units) , followed by Canada with 21,707 cars, which accounted for 9.9% and Germany with 4,030 units, which represented 1.8% of shipments abroad.
“The great relevance and importance of the US market is highlighted, since 83.6% of exports have been directed to our northern neighbor since 2020. The United States market share had not exceeded 83%, and the top three countries to which we export represent 95.3%, which are the United States, Canada, and Germany,” Adriana Ramírez highlighted.
The brands that registered the highest exports in the first month of this year were Toyota , with an increase of 324.5% over the same period last year. KIA followed with an increase of 23.1% , and Ford with an increase of 4.7% in its shipments abroad in that month, according to figures from Inegi.
By segment, Ramírez indicated that SUVs were the units that were exported the most with 55.1% , followed by pickups with 25% , compacts with 17.1% , luxury with 1.5% and subcompacts with 0.7 percent .
Regarding sales in the domestic market, the sector reached 119,811 new units in the first month of 2025, which represented an increase of 5.9% compared to the same month last year.
“According to official data collected by Inegi, January 2025 is the year in which we are in third place, behind only 2017 with a difference of 2.9% and practically at the same level as 2016,” said Guillermo Rosales, executive president of the Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors (AMDA) .
At a press conference, he said that, although there is a recovery in the industry, expectations for 2025 are moderate. In an optimistic scenario in which the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows 1.1% , AMDA expects the sale of 1,530,029 units .
In a second scenario, in which an economic contraction of 1% is foreseen , sales could fall to 1,482,734 units .
“Month by month, expectations for the Mexican economy have been declining, mainly due to the order of the relationship between the United States and Mexico, but we are also already experiencing a dynamic of deceleration that began towards the end of 2023,” Rosales said.
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