Mexico’s Light Vehicles Market

Light vehicles sales in Mexico have been keeping a good pace, but still lag far behind the desired levels as the market gradually recovers. The importation of 6.6 million used vehicles from the U.S. in the past six years has really damaged Mexico's domestic market for new light vehicles.

According to AMDA (Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors), the sale of light vehicles during the past year (2012) increased by 9%, compared with the same period of time (January – December) of 2011. The year 2012, according to AMDA, 987,747 light vehicles were commercialized, representing 81,861 more units than the 905,886 registered in the year 2011.

Exhibit 1 lustrates the total sales of light vehicles in Mexico, from the year 2007 to the past year 2012. It reveals that the Mexican market hasn't recovered the figures recorded in 2007, but it has shown signs of improvement compared with the years 2008 -2011.

Comparing the year 2012, with the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, the growth rate is -10.2%, -3.7%, -30.8%, 20.4 % and 9% respectively.

According to AMDA, Nissan leads the domestic market in sales with 224,962 units. They are followed by General Motors (186,383) and Volkswagen with (133,964). It is remarkable that the Asian trademarks are taking over the Mexican Market displacing the North American brands. Nissan features a variation of 20,453 more units sold during 2012, compared with 2011. Of the 6 trademarks that resulted into a positive variation in the total sale of units compared with the year 2011, 3 of them are Asian (Nissan, Toyota and Honda) and those three are among the four with the highest improvement among the market.

Exhibit 2 features the total sales of light vehicles in Mexico by brands, comparing the years 2012 and 2011.

By price ranges, the luxury cars segment rose 70.5% and multipurpose and light trucks advanced 9.3% and 5.6%, respectively. There was a 30.1% decrease in sport, but the subcompact segment rose 6.5% and the compact sector by 6.1%.

In this regard, Nissan has almost 25% of the market, followed by GM and Volkswagen. Exhibit 3 illustrates the market share of the past year 2012.

Even though Nissan is the dealership with the highest market share in Mexico, GM has the vehicle with the highest sales in Mexico, according to the AMIA and AMDA. GM Aveo was the best-selling car in Mexico during the year 2012, with 66,099 units. Nissan has 5 models in the top 10 cars Bestsellers, as it is explained in Exhibit 4. The Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors (AMDA) predicts that this year (2013) similar increases in sales will be reported monthly compared to results from a year ago. According to the AMDA by the end of 2013 there will be sold in-country a total of around 1,070,771 units. This represents a growth of 8.4 percent compared with the data reported in 2012.

Exhibit 5 shows Mexico's Market Share and its forecast from 2013 to 2020.