North American Manufacturers Set Production Record in 2015

Automotive plants in North America produced more light vehicles in 2015 than any prior year, with total volume of 17,433,660 units.

Production was up 2.9% from 2014 and breached the 17-million mark for the first time since 2000. The strong year ended with a moderate month as December’s volume slipped 0.9% from same-month 2014 to 1,226,574 units.

Light trucks continued to dominate the market in December, climbing 5.1% over like-2014 to 764,579 units, while car output fell 9.3% to 461,995. Pickups again saw the biggest growth of all segments with an 18.6% increase over December 2014.

It was a slow December in the U.S., with production down 2.4% from like-2014 to 826,102 units. However, calendar-year U.S. volume of 11,777,142 builds was 3.6% above 2014.

Production was sluggish in Canada: down 3.3% in December to 178,343 units, with output for the entire year falling 4.8% to 2,268,996.

Mexico production continued to grow, rising 7.9% from like-2014 to 222,129 units in December, with full-year 2015 production up 6.1% to 3,387,522 units.

Several automakers posted record calendar-year totals in 2015. BMW soared 14.6% year-over-year to 400,904 builds. Honda built 1,862,491 LVs, posting 3.1% growth. Nissan plants assembled 1,785,246 LVs, 1.8% above 2014’s total.

As predicted by WardsAuto, Ford production grew 5.6% over the previous year to 3,051,281 LVs. Ford’s output in 2015 was boosted by full-year production from a couple plants that were closed for extended periods in 2014 to retool for new products. Ford’s December output jumped 14.5% over like-2014 to 236,651 units.

Among other major automakers, December production by FCA fell 9.2% from same-month 2014, GM was down 9.1% and Toyota declined 3.5%.

North America production is forecast for another record high in 2016 with 17.7 million units.

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