During May, 102,697 new light vehicles were sold in Mexico, according to trade associations, representing a 5.2% increase from April, and a 12.6% increase from the same month last year.

It was the first May to show an increase since pre-pandemic sales, surpassing the 102,422 units sold in May 2019.

From January through May, 515,433 new cars were sold, representing a 20.4% increase from the same period last year. The figures suggest that 2023 car sales could come close to the 1.3 million units sold in Mexico in 2019, indicating the automotive industry is finally recovering from the global supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mexico saw 1.08 million new car sales in 2022 – a 7% improvement on 2021, but still 17.6% behind pre-pandemic figures. 

May’s figures, reported on Friday by the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA) and the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA), showed Nissan was the top-selling brand, with 18.3% of total sales. The Japanese automaker sold 20,045 cars in May, representing a year-on-year growth of 42.2%. 

The next most popular brands were GM (with 13.1% market share), Volkswagen Group (with 11.1%), then Stellantis, Kia and Toyota (with 7.5% each). 

A big winner in May, Mazda saw sales growth of 178.1% from the previous year, and Stellantis also saw a 36.6% increase. In contrast, Toyota saw a dip in sales of 18.3%, and Suzuki by 19.7%. 

The automotive manufacturing industry is one of the pillars of Mexico’s economy, representing around 3.5% of GDP. Besides selling to the domestic market, the country became the leading exporter of vehicles to the United States last year, reaching US $34.9 billion in sales.  

With reports from El Financiero and Forbes