Driven by instant
consumer demand for the new Uno during its very first
part-month on sale, last month Fiat Automóveis retained
its position as the best-selling automotive brand in
Brazil, combining passenger cars and light commercial
vehicles, with 54,934 vehicles being registered during
May. However last month's sales performance by Fiat
Automóveis was more than 3,000 units down year-on-year
and came against the backdrop of a market that gained
very slightly in the same period.
For the year-to-date Fiat
Automóveis is the Brazilian market leader with 281,295
of its vehicles being registered. That adds up to a 22.5
percent slice of all sales for the period and gives the
Italian carmaker an advantage of almost 20,000 units
over the second-placed brand, although it has given up
some market share year-on-year for the year-to-date.
From January to May,
Fiat Automóveis leads both the passenger car sector,
with 228,014 cars registered, and the light commercial
vehicle segment, with 53,281 units sold, according to
data from the
Registro Nacional de Veículos Automotores
(Renavam) which was issued
by Anfavea (National
Association of Automobile Vehicle Manufacturers).
The arrival of the widely acclaimed new Uno model on the
market contributed greatly toward last month's result.
During its very first first month of its
commercialisation, the Uno was Fiat Automóveis'
top-selling model, with 14,089 units, an impressive
result considering that the new car only arrived in the
dealer network and on the forecourts during the second
week of the month. Over an accumulation for the year,
the Uno, also counting the older model, has already
become the car with the highest number of sales for
Fiat, with 63,590 units. Meanwhile in the LCV segment,
the Strada remains the outright sales leader, with
42,389 units registered during the first five months of
the year.
However, an end to
state incentives in the form of tax breaks, saw
Brazilian sales for May totaling 251,087 vehicles, 1.7
percent up year-on-year, thanks to a strongly-growing
economy, but 9.6 percent down on the previous month,
April. Stripping out the LCV segemnt (where Fiat
Automóveis fields the runaway market leader in the shape
of the popular Strada light pick-up), amongst the market
for passenger cars VW was the best-selling brand for
May, with 46,258 registrations, 3,000 units ahead of
Fiat (43,485), while the two U.S. giants, GM (38,411)
and Ford (15,167), took third and fourth positions.
