World Vehicle Sales Up 1.0% in February

Global automakers delivered 6.3 million vehicles in February, up 1.0% from the same month year-ago.

The strongest year-over-year gain was in Europe, where sales surged 10.0% on 1.4 million vehicles. This was the largest increase for the region since June 2015.

Growth was driven by strong demand in several large markets, including France (+13.1%), Germany (+12.4%), Italy (+28.2%) and Spain (+13.2%).

Sales in Russia sank 14.8% to 115,000 units, but this was the smallest decline in 14 months and was up 35.7% over the prior month.

Robust demand in North America earned the region a 25.3% share of the global tally with 1.6 million deliveries, climbing 7.4% over year-ago.

Sales rose 6.7% in the U.S. and 8.8% in Canada. Mexico continued to see double-digit gains, soaring 13.7% to 114,000 units.

Conversely, the Asia-Pacific region witnessed its first year-over-year decline in 5 months, falling 4.4% to 2.9 million units. Sales plummeted 23.4% in Japan and 8.4% in South Korea. Australia and India were the only large markets to post positive totals, gaining 4.3% and 6.7%, respectively.

After months of rapid growth, sales slowed in China, slipping 0.3% to 1.6 million units. The country still held a quarter of the world market and was up 4.4% year-to-date.

South America extended its string of losses to 13 months, tumbling 13.1% to 272,000 units. Venezuela posted a staggering 75.1% decrease, with only 325 deliveries. Brazil sales dropped 21.1% and Colombia sales fell 11.3%. Deliveries were up, however, in Argentina (+11.3%) and Chile (+17.5%).

Overall, with sales swelling in some markets and sinking in others, the first two months of 2016 were up 1.2% over like-2015, with 13.5 million vehicles sold worldwide.

[email protected]