With sales of 7,206 units so far this year Iveco remains the truck brand with the fastest growing expansion on the Brazilian market, it adds up to a year-on-year sales increase of 131 pct and four times what the overall market achieved.

With sales of 7,206 units between January and the end of August, Iveco remains the truck brand with the fastest growing expansion on the Brazilian market this year. The news comes at Iveco inaugurates a new 11 million euro Product Development Centre at its Sete Lagos plant and announces a 5-year, 220 million euro investment in the region.

Iveco will use the investment to ramp up its Latin American production to just under 48,000 vehicles per year from 2009. It currently builds its van and truck range at plants in Brazil and Argentina, as well as in CKD form in Venezuela. All three countries will see production rising. The new Product Development Centre at Sete Lagos will evolve European products for the local markets.

This volume so far this year represents an increase of 131 pct on sales over the same period of 2007, a growth rate four times greater than managed by the rest of local truck industry, which achieved an average increase of around 35 pct this year. With this performance, Iveco consolidates its fourth position in the ranking of truck brands in Brazil, an improved position that it achieved in July.

These figures refer specifically to the market for trucks over 3.5 tons (total gross weight), if light commercial trucks (between 2.8 to 3.5 tons) are included in the figure, Iveco sales in the first eight months of the year was 8,148 units, meaning it was up 124 pct over the same period of 2007.

Iveco repeated the best year-on-year performance in the sector for retail sales during August, in the market for trucks over 3.5 tons, the company achieved a new monthly sale's record, with exactly 1,000 units sold (96 pct higher than the same period of last year). That volume represents a market share of 8.9 pct in August. The total sales between January up the end of August was 5,993 units of trucks over 3.5 tons, 124 pct higher than the same period of last year, while the market growth was just of 30.3 pct. During the year, Iveco reached a market share of 7.4 pct, a growth of 3.2 points comparing to its participation in the same period last year.

by Claudio Perlini