The Mexican auto industry saw its worst domestic sales for the month of May in 25 years, according to the federal statistics agency Inegi.
Only 42,028 automobiles were sold in Mexico last month, representing a 59% drop from the same month in 2019.
The last time the country saw a similar month of poor auto sales was in 1995, the year following the Mexican peso crisis, when the peso suffered an extreme devaluation in relation to the U.S. dollar. Domestic car sales fell 75.1% in May of that year.
The current drop is due to the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the mitigation measures for which did not include automotive manufacturing and sales as essential activities. Manufacturers suspended production from March 31 to May 30.
“These results come in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic that … has negatively impacted the automotive market in the face of the social isolation measures ordered by health authorities … and the deterioration of the economic conditions of many families” said Guillermo Rosales, head of the Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors (AMDA).
He said that in order to sell cars automotive companies improved their capacity to make sales online, utilizing information technologies in order to generate more trust among consumers.
Sales data from January to May of this year reveal that 373,608 cars were sold, a 30% drop from the same period in 2019, and the largest same-period reduction since 2009, the year following the 2008 global economic recession.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
