North America Light-Vehicle Production Up 2% in January

Automakers in North America built 1,386,739 light vehicles in January, rising 2.0% above like-2016.

Light-truck production soared 9.2% to 910,149 units, while car output tumbled 9.4% to 476,590. However, the small-car total gained 11.7% over year-ago, reaching 251,289 units. Middle- and large-car production both declined nearly 30%.

CUVs, the biggest volume segment, grew 12.9% to 443,631 builds.

In the U.S., production increased 3.0% over year-ago to 917,572 LVs. Ford production inched up 1.7%, while Honda output slipped 3.0% and Hyundai decreased 5.7%.

GM production totaled 175,010 units, up 33.1% over January 2016, when the Lordstown, OH, and Wentzville, MO, plants were down for retooling.

FCA built just 59 cars for the month in the U.S., compared to over 10,000 in like-2016. Truck output also shrank, dropping 19.9% to 89,618 units.  

Assembly plants in Mexico improved production 4.4% to 278,458 LVs. Car output decreased 3.4% despite both GM and Honda more than doubling car builds. Nissan and Ford, the top two car producers each slowed production about 30%.

Mexico light-truck production soared 13.9% to 137,098 units.

Falling behind the region, Canada production decreased 5.8% from year-ago to 190,709 LVs, with declines in both car and light-truck output.

Toyota, the country’s biggest automaker, was up 7.8% to 53,765 builds at its two plants in Ontario. Still, a 29.8% fall from FCA and 12.4% from GM tipped the scale into the red.

Several manufacturers outpaced the region, growing by double digits. GM production soared 20.6%, Kia grew 24.1%, and Mercedez-Benz was up an estimated 24.8%. Volkswagen saw the biggest increase, soaring an estimated 86.4% to 48,042 units.

[email protected]