Global light vehicle sales down sharply in January

GlobalData

Thu, February 19, 2026 astatine 10:42 AM CST 6 min read

For January, the Global Light Vehicle (LV) selling complaint fell sharply to 81 cardinal units/year owed to a steep contraction successful the Chinese PV market. In
year-on-year (YoY) terms, the marketplace declined 2.0% arsenic income totaled 6.6 cardinal units globally.

For the archetypal clip successful an extended period, the US, Western Europe, and China each experienced a diminution successful the aforesaid month. The drivers varied by region: successful the US, terrible upwind weighed connected sales; successful China, the simplification successful NEV
purchase-tax discounts and changes to the trade-in subsidy programme sharply reduced volumes; and successful Western Europe, a December pull-forward, was followed by a muted commencement to 2026.

Commentary

North America

US LV income fell by 0.8% YoY successful January, to 1.09 cardinal units. January 2026 contained 1 further selling time compared to January 2025, truthful income declined by 4.6% YoY connected a selling day-adjusted basis. The selling complaint slowed to 14.71 cardinal units/year successful January, from 16.3 cardinal units/year successful December. Although January typically sees a slowdown arsenic the marketplace pauses for enactment aft the end-of-year rush, January 2026 was besides impacted by terrible wintertime weather, which apt kept income subdued implicit the last 2 weekends of the month. Average transaction prices reached US$46,204 successful January, down by US$943 MoM, but up by 1.9% YoY. Incentives averaged US$3,335 successful January, down by US$288 MoM, but up by 2.0% YoY.

Canadian LV income totaled an estimated 113k units successful January, down by 2.9% YoY, though the selling complaint accelerated to 2.02 cardinal units/year, from 1.94 cardinal units/year successful December. Given that overmuch of Canada experienced dense snowfall successful January, this tin beryllium considered a bully result. In Mexico, income accrued by 11.4% YoY, to astir 140k units. The selling complaint accrued to 1.74 cardinal units/year, from 1.46 cardinal units/year successful December. These were grounds income for the period of January, arsenic Chinese OEMs proceed to beryllium additive to full volumes.

Europe

The Western European LV marketplace saw a humble slowdown successful January arsenic income totaled 986k units, down 2.0% YoY. The monthly selling complaint decelerated to 12.96 cardinal units/year. Across the 5 largest Western European markets, income trends were broadly successful enactment with December, with the main deviation coming from Germany. Germany’s beardown momentum cooled successful January, with income falling for the archetypal clip successful much than six months. France recorded a further diminution arsenic governmental uncertainty continued to measurement connected demand. Aside from the large 5 markets, a pull-forward effect was seen successful immoderate of Europe’s medium-sized markets toward year-end, driven by changes to definite taxation regimes arsenic good arsenic changes to EU CO₂ emissions standards.