North American Light-Vehicle Production Down 2.2% in November

North American automakers built 1,352,170 light vehicles in November, 2.2% below same-month 2013. Inventory control and short-term plant closures for retooling brought the greatest year-over-year decrease of 2014.

Production from the Detroit Three fell 10.4% as each manufacturer showed a drop. Ford had the worst result, down 14.7%. General Motors also recorded a double-digit decrease, 12.2%. Chrysler, while up 11.6% over the first 11 months of this year, showed a 3.5% decline in November.

The biggest gainers were smaller manufacturers. Subaru produced 25,214 LVs in the month, 20.0% better than last year. WardsAuto estimates builds from BMW and Mercedes increased 29.5% and 19.2%, respectively.

Car production ticked down 1.6% to 586,622 units. This vehicle type has followed a downward trend this year, falling 1.4% over the January-November period.

Light trucks posted the first decline in 20 months, slipping 2.7% to 765,548 units. Year-to-date, light-truck output was up 8.9% from 2013.

Canadian plants built 209,646 LVs, 7.3% below November 2013. Negating a couple months of gains, this result brought the year-to-date number down 0.7% below last year.

Mexico had its best-ever November result with 282,051 units. Output from January through November climbed 8.6% to 2,986,962, also a record high for this period.

U.S. LV production slipped 4.8% from year-ago last month to 860,473 units. A total of 10,521,053 LVs were built through the first 11 months of this year, up 4.3%.

North American light-vehicle production through November was 15,700,428 units, up 4.3% from year-ago.

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