Strong sales in Asia and moderate growth in Europe and North America balanced plummeting sales in South America.
in WardsAuto, by Sarah Petit, 30-12-2015
Global vehicle sales soared 8.9% in November, the highest year-over-year monthly increase in 2015, continuing a 3-month streak of gains to a total of 7.7 million units delivered. Strong demand in the Asia-Pacific region and moderate growth in Europe and North America was enough to offset the sharp decline seen in South America.
China’s growth was a major factor once again in the robust world total with a 26.2% gain on 2.5 million registrations last month and commanding a 32.6% share of the world tally. Sales also were up in India (+10.9%) and South Korea (+14.4%), but slipped in Japan (-6.6%). As a whole the Asia-Pacific region was up 18.2% over last November with a total of 4.1 million vehicles sold, holding a 53.1% share of the global market.
Such large growth in the Asia-Pacific region caused North America and Europe’s market shares to fall to 21.1% and 20.3% respectively, though both regions had positive monthly totals.
North America recorded the highest November in at least 10 years by delivering 1.6 million vehicles, 2.8% above last year. Each country in the region posted their highest totals for November since 2005. Mexico saw the biggest growth, climbing 12.6% above last year with 129,000 registrations. Canada posted a 4.6% increase by selling 148,000 vehicles. U.S. dealers sold 1.3 million units, a 1.7% gain over year-ago.
In Europe, sales were 4.4% better than last November with just under 1.6 million vehicles sold. Regional year-over-year growth would have been much higher save for the huge losses seen in Russia (-41.5%) and Ukraine (-23.1%). Every other country in the region saw growth and Europe’s auto recovery is expected to continue into 2016 as the overall economy improves and fuel prices remain low.
In contrast, South America sales dove 24.3% below like-2014 with just 336,000 deliveries. Sales plummeted 33.4% in Brazil and 53.6% in Venezuela, and stayed flat in Chile with a 0.4% drop. The only growth seen in the region was in Argentina, which climbed 27.3% over last year.
November’s results brought year-to-date worldwide vehicles sales to 80.2 million, up 1.6% from like-2014.