Vehicle sales in Mexico are far from returning to pre-pandemic levels. From January to June of this year, 518,424 units were sold in the country, which meant a decline of 19.1% compared to the same period in 2019, before the arrival of the covid pandemic, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
Since last year, the automotive sector has faced a kind of perfect storm in its value chain due to the shortage in the supply of semiconductors, which have been prioritized for the manufacture of mobile devices such as cell phones and laptops, as well as for the rising price of raw materials.
Guillermo Rosales, president of the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA), one of the representative organizations of the sector, considers that these results reflect uncertainty in the inventory, as well as the inflationary attack on the consumption side, in such a way that “even there is a significant gap for recovery.”
Vehicle sales in Mexico suffer from the break in supply chains globally. In proportion, in the first half of this year, practically one in five cars stopped selling compared to before the covid-19 pandemic.
From January to June, there was also no improvement compared to the same period in 2021. In that period, 520,524 vehicles were sold, which resulted in a decrease of 0.4%.
The lack of supply in the local market has led to the increase in the price of the available units. According to figures from the consulting firm JD Power, the average price of a new vehicle this year is 399,000 pesos, which meant an increase of 14.8% compared to the previous year. This has been the highest in the last decade, since the annual variations did not exceed 8%.
In 2019, the average price of a vehicle was 310,000 pesos, in such a way that, when compared to the current average today, it results in an increase of 28.1%.
In addition to the above, Rosales highlights that the high levels of inflation, which have had a direct impact on the pockets of consumers, highlighting that the annual general inflation in the first half of June was 7.8%, while that of vehicles was 8.9%, that is, the cost of the latter became more expensive than other products in the national territory.
Fewer vehicles for Mexico
The consulting firm Jato Dynamics considers that another of the modifications that the product shortage has brought is that the brands have prioritized their units to other markets that are more profitable for them, such as the United States, which further reduces the offer in the local market. .
Added to this is that the top 10 best-selling car brands in the country have been in constant change for a few years. Hence, the strategies that each brand has undertaken to overcome the current challenges and boost their sales have influenced the movements of this list.
According to Inegi data, in the first half of the year the best-selling brand was Nissan, followed by General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota and KIA.
Compared to 2019, the main five players in the market had no variation, but the changes that the brands of the later positions have had stand out, as well as the appearance of new competitors, such as the brand of Chinese origin MG Motor, which arrived in the country in 2020.
