Mexico’s auto production and exports rebound

MEXICO – At the close of the first quarter of 2023, vehicle production and exports in Mexico rebounded by more than 8% annually, but both items have yet to reach pre-pandemic and peak levels.

Auto production in Mexico was of 922,177 units in the first three months of 2023. This figure still below the 933,567 vehicles assembled in the same period of 2020, but the highest for a single quarter since then.

According to the report prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), vehicle production in Mexico increased by 8.61% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of 2022.

At the close of the first quarter of 2019, before the health emergency, the Mexican automotive industry assembled 999,672 vehicles. This figure is still far from the 922,000 assembled in the first quarter of this year.

Light trucks represented 77.2% of total production, while the rest corresponded to the manufacture of vehicles.

The country's automotive industry accelerated in March, producing 346,124 units, which represented an increase of 17% monthly, and 13.1% with respect to March 2022.

Meanwhile, vehicle exports grew by 8.86% annually in the January-March 2023 period. Inegi registered 741,306 vehicles exported in the first quarter, 60,314 more than in the first quarter of last year.