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Automakers in North America produced 1,672,776 light vehicles in March, rising 8.9% year-over-year.
The biggest improvement was seen in Mexico, where light-vehicle production skyrocketed 39.9% to 371,827 units, a record high for any month. Several models have begun production there since March 2016 including the Dodge Journey, Kia Forte, Nissan Kicks and Audi Q5.
Car production jumped 35.1% and light-truck output rose 47.5% to 154,498 units. FCA was up 92.3%, GM increased 27.9% and Volkswagen grew 80.2%.
Through Q1 Mexico was 19.9% ahead of like-2016 with 962,455 builds, and on track to reach WardsAuto’s forecasted 4 million units for the year.
Production picked up in Canada for the first time this year, rising 3.6% to 220,638 LVs for the month. Much of the growth came from Honda (+10.5%) and FCA (+6.6%), while Ford output fell 6.1% and GM was down 2.5%.
Year-to-date, Canada’s total was 4.6% lower than like-2016 with 597,595 builds.
U.S. output inched up 1.7% to 1,080,311 LVs in March. Light-truck production grew 9.8% to 778,634, commanding a 70.5% share of U.S. builds. Conversely, car assemblies fell year-over-year for the seventh straight month, down 14.6% to 301,677 units.
FCA tumbled 11.6% to 115,079 units, due to diminishing car production, while Ford’s total grew 8.1% to 242,908 and Toyota gained 2.7%.
U.S. production through March totaled 2,950,774 units, dipping 1.5% below same-period 2016.
Looking at the region by segment, CUVs and small cars both saw a more than 17% increases in production and pickups grew 13.0%. Middle car builds tumbled 16.1% and van output shrank 3.2%.
Several automakers witnessed huge gains: Kia production soared 36.8% to 44,824 units and Volkswagen output grew an estimated 69.3% to 71,854. BMW was the only manufacturer to fall behind year-ago, dropping 3.4% to 37,777.
Ending the first quarter, North America production beat like-2016 by 1.9% with 4,510,824 units.
