World Vehicle Sales Dip Down in April

Global vehicle sales totaled 7.14 million units in April, a 0.7% decrease over like-2014.

North America posted the largest year-over-year growth last month. Sales in the region surged 5.7% to 1.77 million units, with all countries recording gains over year-ago. North American deliveries accounted for 24.9% of the global market.

Mexico continued to show strong year-over year growth, jumping 22.8%. The U.S. gained 4.8%, and Canadian sales rose 5.7%

Europe was the other region to show positive results, with deliveries up 1.9% from April 2014. The 1.64 million vehicles brought the region’s market share to 22.9%.

Russia’s negative pull (-41.4%) was relieved by growth in Europe’s other major markets, including Germany (+6.4%), the U.K. (+7.1%), France (+2.1) and Italy (+22.6).

Sales in the Asia-Pacific region decreased 2.3% in April to 3.29 million units, 46.1% of worldwide deliveries.

A 0.5% drop in region-leader China, along with double-digit declines in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan gave the area its second negative monthly outcome in over two years. Major gains in India, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam could not reverse the downward movement.

Vehicle sales in South America tumbled again with a 21.6% drop from prior-year to 360,000 units. The continent accounted for 5.0% of global deliveries, up slightly from March, but an all-time low for April.

All big markets in South America saw declines in sales. Brazil, with the highest market share, had sales plummet 25.2% from year-ago levels. Argentina (-9.7%), Chile (-13.3%) and Colombia (-16.3%) also showed negative results. Only Venezuela, with less than 0.1% share, saw a large improvement, soaring 33.5% above last year’s results.

Through April, 29.04 million vehicles were sold worldwide, up 0.7% from like-2014.

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