During 2010 Fiat
Automóveis once again confirmed its leadership of the
Brazilian new car market with a total of 760,495
registrations, a record for its three and a half decades
of manufacturing in Latin America's biggest country.
Fiat Automóveis'
performance represents a 22.8 percent share of the total
registrations of cars and light trucks in Brazil during
the year just gone and adds up to a lead of 63,141 units
over second placed brand in the rankings, Volkswagen.
Compared to 2009, that represents a sales increase of
3.2 percent. (In 2009, 736,973 units). However Fiat's
share of the Brazilian market has declined slightly over
the last couple of years as it has mildly underperformed
booming overall sales.
For the Italian carmaker 2010 in Brazil was all about
the New Uno which was launched in May and became an
instant sales success. Throughout the year, 228,581
units were registered (including the former-generation
model which is still built in Brazil and is the market's
entry level favourite), an increase of 36 percent over
the previous year, which moved it up to become the
second best selling car on the Brazilian market last
year. The New Uno, awarded the title of "Brazilian Car
of the Year 2011" was the winner of a string of end of
year awards, from virtually all the Brazilian media, in
its category. With the New Uno Fiat has finally found a
car that can really take the fight to Brazil's
best-seller, VW's Gol. The ageing B-segment Palio, which
saw its sales quickly stripped away by the arrival of
the New Uno however found a strong resistance level of
around ten thousand units per month towards the end of
the year.
Fiat Automóveis also
took a brave decision late in the year by introducing
the European C-segment 5-door Bravo hatchback to the
Brazilian market. Now assembled locally and powered by
the new 1.8 E.TorQ 1.8 16V flex fuel engine, the Bravo
brings new technology, comfort and styling to the Fiat
Automóveis product line-up.
Fiat Automóveis threw
its weight behind the E.TorQ engine family - which is
based on the former BMW/Chrysler "Tritec" unit, now
updated by Fiat Powertrain Technologies which acquired
the intellectual property, equipment and factory of the
former joint venture - and throughout the year the
engine was steadily rolled out across the Palio, Siena,
Punto, Idea, Doblň and Linea families. The fuel-saving
Dualogic transmission is now starting to be offered with
the E.TorQ engine.
Among the busy market segment for light commercial
vehicles, 2010 saw the Ducato celebrating ten years of
production in Brazil in the best possible way, by
locking out the market leadership in class reserved for
large vans. Meanwhile the Strada light pickup repeated
its continual winning ways: once again it claimed the
position of the best-selling commercial vehicle on the
market with a volume of 116,827 units registered, and
that was impressively up 30 percent year-on-year.
