World Vehicle Sales up 2.7% in October

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. 

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