North America Production Down 3.6% in November

In November, North American automakers slowed light-vehicle production 3.6% year-over-year to 1,432,254.

Much of the loss came from car output, which fell 20.4% to 453,358 units and held just 32% of the region’s builds. In contrast, light-truck production was up 6.9%.

Manufacturers in the U.S. built 6.8% fewer LVs than same-month 2016, with 891,584 units. Most manufacturers pulled back production, including BMW (-1.3%), Hyundai (-31.4%) and Nissan (-10.0%).

However, Ford increased production in the U.S. 9.2% to 206,720. Large car output rose 17.7% and CUVs gained 43.8%, while luxury-car builds dropped 66.0% to 1,146 units.

Subaru also saw improvement, up 9.2% to 28,055 units, due to an 85.1% surge of Impreza builds.

Through November, U.S. production was down 8.0% from same-period 2016 to 10,175,368 LVs.

In Canada, production decreased 5.3% to 197,329 for the month. Both car (-2.2%) and light-truck (-7.0%) output shrank year-over-year.

Toyota slowed 10.3% to 50,096 LVs and Ford dipped 2.1% to 23,031. General Motors tumbled an estimated 33.6% to 33,000.

Honda was a lone bright spot in Canada, improving an estimated 5.3% to 36,903 units. Outpacing other manufacturers in the country through most of the year, Honda’s 11-month tally was up 3.4% on 396,404 Civics and CR-Vs.

Overall through November, Canada’s total fell 7.4% behind same-period 2016 with 2,029,696 LVs.

Contrasting the rest of the region, production in Mexico jumped 7.2% to 343,341 in November.

FCA saw the biggest improvement, climbing 40.4% to 58,623. Kia also witnessed soaring growth, up 26.1% to 21,460 for the month and skyrocketing 123.4% over 11 months.

Ford (-12.2%), Nissan (-14.1%) and Toyota (-4.5%) were among several manufacturers to slow production in November.

The light-vehicle total for Mexico through November was 3,635,920, up 13.4% from same-period 2016. Several new models added to the lineup in 2017 generated much of the growth, including the Audi Q5, Jeep Compass, Volkswagen Tiguan, Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio.

With one month to go for the year, automakers in North America built 15,840,984 LVs, dipping 3.7% behind year-ago. Production would have to improve about 50% in December to reach 2016’s year-end total of 17,729,470.

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