Mexico car sales are growing, but its factories are making fewer vehicles
A worker handles a vehicle on a Nissan production line in Mexico. Nissan produced 340,683 vehicles in Mexico through August 2026, down 25.1% from the same period last year. Courtesy of | Nissan México

More people are buying new cars in Mexico this year, even as the country’s factories are making slightly fewer of them — a split that matters on both sides of the border.

Mexico sold more than 1 million new vehicles from January through August, up 4.7% from the same period last year, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography, known as INEGI.

At the same time, Mexico produced about 2.65 million vehicles, down less than 1%, while exports were essentially flat at about 2.25 million vehicles.

And most of those exports are headed north.

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