World Vehicle Sales Inch Up 1.5% in January

The world vehicle market is off to a good start in 2016 with sales inching up 1.5% in January from same-month 2015 to 7.2 million units. South America’s steep decline in sales was overshadowed by increased demand in all other regions.

Holding just 4.2% of the world total, South America sales fell 28.2% to 301,000 vehicles.

Sales in Brazil plunged for the 13^th straight month: down 38.6% to 155,000 units. Argentina and Venezuela also witnessed sharp downturns. Chile and Colombia were two bright spots in the region, posting 6.2% and 11.1% increases, respectively.

The Asia-Pacific region held a robust 55.4% share of the global market with close to 4 million vehicles sold, which was a 4.2% increase over year-ago.

Outcomes within the region varied: Pakistan (+23.0%), Philippines (+12.0%), Singapore (+89.7%) and Vietnam (+43.6%) all saw double-digit increases, while sales fell in Indonesia (-9.9%), Japan (-4.6%) and Thailand (-13.2%). Sales in China soared 7.7% to 2.5 million units, a 33.9% share of the world tally.

European deliveries were strong last month, posting a 3.3% improvement over same-month 2015 with 1.4 million vehicles sold.

January tends to be the biggest sales month in Ireland and this year was up 31.7% over year-ago, reaching the highest January total since 2008.

Other European countries to post significant gains included Finland (+15.4%), Italy (+17.6%) and Portugal (+19.2%).

Sales in North America were up 1.5% to 1.4 million units. Mexico posted a record January total exceeding 122,000 units, a 15.4% increase over year-ago. Canada sales grew 9.0% to 111,000 units. Conversely, sales in the U.S. dipped 0.4% below last year with under 1.2 million units.

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