North American auto assemblies fall in December

North American vehicle production, including personal and commercial vehicles, totaled 992,046 units in December, nearly 23% below 1.282 million units in November. It’s roughly 5.7% behind the 1.0.52 million units produced one year ago.

Below in Figure 1 is a five-year snapshot of North American light-vehicle production since 2019 on a rolling 12-month basis with a y/y growth rate. Also included is a five-year snapshot of the average monthly production, which includes seasonality since 2019.

A short-term snapshot of assembly by nation and vehicle type is shown in the table below. It breaks down total North American personal and commercial vehicle production into US, Canadian, and Mexican components. It also includes the three- and 12-month growth rates for each and their momentum change.

For the three months and 12 months through December, the growth rate for total personal production in the USMCA region remains behind, while commercial vehicle assemblies remain ahead. The momentum shift remains in place since commercial assembly vehicle segments saw an appreciable gain to kick off Q4’24.

Personal vehicle production

The longer-term picture of personal vehicle production across North America is shown below. The charts in Figure 2 show the total personal vehicle production for North America and the total for the US, Canada, and Mexico.

In terms of personal vehicle production, this segment saw a 22.7% month-over-month (m/m) drop in December. Assemblies last month totaled 734,189 units, down from 949,432 units in November. It’s 6.9% below the year-ago total and the lowest output since July 2022.

The US saw a 22.2% m/m production cut, with 132,757 fewer units produced in December. Mexico produced 64,542 fewer units (-25.9%), while Canada’s production was down 17,944 units (-17.7%).

Production share across North America was little changed. The US’ personal vehicle production share of the North American market was 63.9%, followed by Mexico and Canada at 25.7% and 10.4%, respectively.

Commercial vehicle production

Total commercial vehicle production for North America and the total for each nation within the region are shown in the first chart in Figure 3 on a rolling three-month basis. Commercial vehicle production in the US and Mexico and their y/y growth rates, as well as the production share for each nation in North America, are also shown.

North American commercial vehicle production was also down in December. The region saw a 22.3% m/m decline with a total of 257,857 units, down from 332,040 in November. December’s output was 2.3% below last year.

The US saw a 22.3% m/m cut, with 48,715 fewer commercial vehicles assembled in December. Canada followed, down 31.4% (-4,524 units), and then Mexico, down 21.1% (-20,944 units).

The market share across the region was also largely unchanged. The US total share was 67%, followed by Mexico with a 29% share, and Canada with a 4% share in December.

Presently, Mexico exports just under 80% of its light-vehicle production, with the US and Canada as the highest-volume destinations.

Editor’s note: This report is based on data from LMC Automotive for automotive assemblies in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The breakdown of assemblies is “Personal” (cars for personal use) and “Commercial” (light vehicles with less than 6.0 metric tons gross vehicle weight rating; heavy trucks and buses are not included).