Editor's note: This story is part of the WardsAuto digital archive, which may include content that was first published in print, or in different web layouts.
October vehicle sales totaled 8.10 million worldwide, improving 2.7% from like-2016 and extending a 6-month stretch of gains.
With mixed results country to country, the Asia-Pacific region inched up 1.1% to 4.01 million vehicles and held 49.5% of the world market. Through October, sales in the region outpaced year-ago 4.8% with 36.70 million.
Sales in India ticked up 1.0% to 353,000 and were up 8.1% year-to-date. India is the world’s fastest-growing oil consumer and has seen a huge increase in the number of gas stations, even as the government has announced goals to have all electric new-vehicle sales by 2030. In neighboring Pakistan, vehicle sales soared 45.4% to 24,000 in October.
Amid mounting uneasiness with North Korea in recent months, South Korea sales saw a 12.5% decline to 130,000 and Japan dipped 1.7% to 372,000.
China sales increased 2.0% to 2.70 million, bringing the 10-month total up 4.4% to 22.93 million. Boosted by government incentives, sales of alternative-fuel vehicles doubled year-over-year to 91,000 in October and totaled 402,000 year-to-date, reported by the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturing.
While China wins in terms of volume, Spain and Germany have seen similar increases in demand for green vehicles, growing 90.7% and 82.7%, respectively, in the third quarter, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Assn (ACEA).
Overall sales in Europe totaled 1.68 million in October, a 7.3% gain over year-ago. Growth came from across the region: Germany sales improved 4.9% to 305,000, Italy was up 7.1% to 180,000 and Belgium grew 5.5% to 51,000.
Several large markets saw double-digit growth, including France (+14.7%), Spain (+15.0%) and Russia (+16.3%), while sales in the U.K. tumbled 12.4% to 189,000.
Europe’s 10-month tally of 17.40 million vehicles was 4.2% ahead of same-period 2016. Still, demand fell short of the pre-recession peak in 2007 when the 10-month total was 18.65 million.
Sales in North America fell 1.0% in October to 1.68 million after a big prior month. Strong 6.8% growth in Canada to 168,000 was not enough to balance a 10.2% dive in Mexico and a 0.9% dip in the U.S.
Leading up to the big end-of-year sales push, North America’s 10-month total was 1.1% lower than like-2016 with 17.53 million deliveries.
South America saw another month of growth, climbing 23.0% to 353,000 vehicles, the highest October total since 2013. Brazil sales jumped 27.5% to 203,000 units and were up 9.2% year-to-date. Argentina saw 20.3% growth to 76,000 and Chile sales rose 18.2% to 32,000.
Through October, South America sales totaled 3.30 million, beating same-period 2016 by 13.4%.
Worldwide sales reached 78.9 million year-to-date, rising 3.4% above year-ago and on track for another record-setting year.
