The export volume in November was 12% higher than in the same month in 2016 . The target markets of Canada, Europe, and Asia are seemingly proving able to absorb the decline in exports to the US – even if many car manufacturers are currently wary of their large neighbor since the US President threatened to pull out of NAFTA . In Mexico itself, the free trade agreement has not yet led to the desired success . Ford certainly doesn’t seem to think an end to NAFTA to be a realistic scenario: After the manufacturer originally canceled its plans for an e-mobility plant in Mexico in spring, following heavy criticism from President Trump, electric vehicles are now to be built south of the border after all . Suppliers like Nuremberg-based wiring systems specialist Leoni also rely on Mexico as a location for automotive production , with Leoni opening a new, ultra-environmentally-friendly plant in Mérida (Yucatán) at the end of November.

Domestic vehicle sales, on the other hand, plummeted in November (-8.5%); this could be blamed on the weak economic growth in the aftermath of the natural disasters in Mexico in August and September. Guillermo Rosales , deputy director of the Mexican association of automobile distributors (AMDA), attributes the fall to the "change in consumer preferences and political and economic instability". Rosales anticipates that the market will stabilize again in 2018.