Thanks to the boost from international events and the Christmas season, new vehicle sales in Mexico and Colombia continued to rise. While economic stagnation is taking its toll on their southern partners.

Another year has ended and it is time to take stock of the automotive sector of the Pacific Alliance. On this occasion, Mexico and Colombia showed signs of recovery and growth in new vehicle sales during 2024. Meanwhile, Chile and Peru showed the other side of the coin by facing challenges that resulted in contractions in their markets, but with better indices in the last stretch of the year.

To begin with, with a robust assembly industry and the nearshoring of expanding Chinese firms, Mexico managed to sell 1,496,806 new light vehicles by the end of 2024. This represents 9.8% compared to the units sold during 2023, according to INEGI.

The good news continues with an achievement: last year's total sales represent the third highest in the history of the automotive industry in Mexico. Although it was slightly below the initial goal of 1.5 million units.

If we compare the sales levels of 2024 with the last pre-pandemic year (2019), we see a growth of 13.6%. In addition, last December played an important role, as 146,365 light vehicles were sold, 1.9% more than the 143,662 in December 2023, which adds up to an increase of 2,703 cars, according to INEGI.

It should be noted that December is usually the month with the highest vehicle sales for the Mexican automotive industry. In fact, double-digit growth is often recorded, due to the push for Christmas shopping.

Among the brands preferred by Mexico there are a variety of nationalities: the podium is led by Nissan (Japan), General Motors (United States), Volkswagen (Germany), Toyota (Japan) and Kia (South Korea). The top 10 is closed by Mazda, Stellantis, MG, Hyundai and Ford. Of this group, General Motors, Toyota and Stellantis registered sales declines in December.

On the other hand, Colombia also closed a favorable year in car sales. This was demonstrated by the New Vehicle Bulletin for December, prepared by the National Federation of Dealers (Fenalco) and the National Association of Entrepreneurs of the coffee-producing country (Andi).

It turns out that the last month of the year was the most profitable, as 25,531 new vehicles were registered, reflecting a growth of 27.6% compared to the same month in 2023 (19,856).

Meanwhile, in the year-to-date, throughout 2024, 200,953 new vehicles were registered, a figure that represents an increase of 7.9% compared to 2023 (186,222). The associations involved in the study explained that the good figures are a sign of the notable recovery of the sector and the influence of strategic events.

A clear example is the Auto Show, held in Bogotá last November, which boosted sales in the last two months of the year.

Likewise, the brands preferred by Colombians throughout 2024 were Toyota (12% of the market), Renault (11.9%), Kia (10.8%), Chevrolet (8.4%) and Mazda (8.3%).

This represented 51.4% of the total number of vehicles registered in December. Some of the most popular models were the Mazda Cx-30, the Toyota Corolla Cross, the Kia Picanto, among others.

In contrast, Chile recorded a stagnation in sales of new and light vehicles throughout 2024. The final balance has been an annual drop of 3.7%, according to the National Automotive Association of the southern country (ANAC).

It turns out that at the end of last year, 302,366 new unit sales were recorded. Although, as in Colombia and Mexico, December was the most promising month with a total of 27,961 units sold, representing a growth of 3.2%.

But weak economic growth and a difficult international outlook have undermined the performance of the Chilean automotive market, according to Anac. Sales of pick-up trucks and passenger vehicles fell 12.7% and 7.6% respectively .

While the leading manufacturer in sales has been Toyota again with 23,535 units of light and medium vehicles sold. Perhaps the most optimistic figure is that for 2025, Anac projects that total sales will reach a performance close to 310,000 units, which would show a growth of 2.5% compared to 2024.

Further north, in Peru, the outlook is not much more encouraging. Although the Andean country's Automotive Association (AAP) has not yet published official sales figures for 2024, the first ten months saw a significant decline.

Thus, sales of new light vehicles reached 126,097 units, which implies a decrease of 10.3% compared to 2023.

If we analyse the vehicle groups, we find significant drops in the sale of cars (22.7%), as well as pick-ups and vans (10.3%). Although at the time, Alberto Morisaki, Manager of Economic Studies and Statistics of the AAP, said that despite the decrease in accumulated sales, the market has shown signs of recovery, which could translate into better figures for the last two months. The next report remains to be seen to find out if these projections materialised.