North American Light-Vehicle Production Up 4.5% in March

North American light-vehicle production reached 1,571,598 units in March, 4.5% above like-2014 and a 10-year high for the month.

Car production totaled 659,295 units, up 5.7%, the first year-over-year gain this year. Light-truck output grew 3.7% to 912,303.

Honda’s production was up 10.1% from last year to 174,655, a record-high for March and the second-best output of any month.

Nissan hit the same milestones with 160,050 builds, just 0.4% above like-2014.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen saw double-digit gains from prior-year.

Ford recorded its first year-over-year improvement of the year with 5.4% growth. However, production for the 3-month period was down 7.0%, the greatest decline among the major automakers.

The only two automakers to post March results lower than last year were Kia and Mitsubishi, down 3.7% and 33.5%, respectively.

March U.S. LV production grew 6.1% from year-ago to 1,089,674 units. A total of 2,874,553 LVs were built through the first three months of this year, up 1.0%.

Canadian plants built 183,567 LVs, 8.6% below March 2014. Year-to-date, output was down 5.4% with a total of 531,451 vehicles.

Mexico had its best-ever March result with 298,357 units. Output from January through March climbed 9.7% to 845,301, also a record high for this period.

North American light-vehicle production through March was 4,251,305 units, up 1.8% from year-ago.

[email protected]