The Mexican auto industry revised its 2017 record auto production upward after newcomer Audi reported numbers from its Q5 plant in San Jose Chiapa, Puebla, that opened in late 2016.
The 158,550 Q5s assembled last year pushed Mexico's auto production to 3,932,119 light vehicles for a 14 percent increase over 2016, the Mexican Automotive Industry Association said last week.
In January, the industry group had reported an 8.9 percent rise in production to just under 3.8 million vehicles. Audi production was left out of that because the company had yet to report to the association.
Eduardo Solis, president of the group, said the auto export record also will be updated once Audi provides a more detailed report from last year. Most Q5s go to export markets.
Mexico also got off to a good start to set production and export records this year.
Auto output in January rose 4.1 percent to just under 304,000 vehicles, and exports rose 9.2 percent to just over 231,000, the association said. Exports to the U.S. were up 10 percent to 178,667 vehicles. That represents about 16 percent of all new light vehicles sold last month in the U.S.
Solis expressed a word of caution, however.
Protesting teachers have been sporadically blocking railroad tracks in the central state of Michoacan in recent weeks, delaying the movement of auto parts and vehicles in and out of the country.
General Motors' plants in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, and Silao, Guanajuato, are "at risk" of production problems from the protests, Solis said. Other automakers face the same situation, but Solis said only GM had given him permission to talk about specific plants.
"We ask the president, the interior minister, in particular, and the economy minister to intervene so that these blockages immediately come to an end," Solis said at the group's monthly press conference.