Fiat
Automóveis saw 60,452 new registrations in Brazil last
month to comfortably lead the market, eight thousand
units ahead of its closest rival VW, with Fiat's
momentum being led by the Uno which accounted for well
over a third of its sales.
A total of 289,213 new passenger cars and light
commercial vehicles were registered in Brazil last
month, a fall of 5.54 percent over March as the
government takes steps to slow the growing credit boom
as it dampens inflation. Brazilian inflation hit 6.4
percent last month at the top end of the central bank's
targets. That month-on-month decline reverses a double
digit rise in sales from February to March. In
year-on-year terms the market was up 4.1 percent for the
month just gone.
"Government measures are starting to show effect,"
noted Sergio Reze, the president of Brazilian automotive
industry body Fenabrave. These measures, designed to
tackle the inflationary trend, started last year with a
revision to central bank's reserve requirements and most
recently now include a new tax that has been rolled out
onto personal credit. "These two measures together have
started to result in demand restraint," added Reze who
says the industry is happy with the programmes. "We would rather have
a slower, sustained growth than an explosive one."
Fiat's 60,452 units sold in Brazil last month was down
6.3 percent month-on-month and slightly underperformed
the overall market, although the Italian carmaker
considerably outperformed it's traditional closest
rival, VW, which with 52,498 units sold last month, was
down 10 percent month-on-month. Third in April place
went to GM, it's 51,427 units was down 7 percent
month-on-month. The Brazilian market new vehicle data was
released by the Associação Nacional dos Fabricantes
de Veículos Automotores (Anfavea) using information
provided by Renavam
For the first four months of the year Fiat Automóveis
has sold 232,463 cars and light commercial vehicles in
Brazil which gives it a leading 22.13 percent share of
the market, with its two biggest rivals, VW and GM,
standing on 20.86 and 18.48 percent respectively. For
the year-to-date Fiat is up 2.7 percent, underperforming
the overall market which is up 4.6 percent to 1.1
million vehicles.
Fiat's performance in Brazil so far this year has been
driven by the continuing success of the Uno which added
a further 22,131 registrations last month to bring its
year-to-date total to 83,480 units. Amongst the segment
reserved for light commercial vehicles the Strada pickup
continued to be the market's top selling choice last
month with 9,872 sales, bringing its sales for the year
to 37,902 units.
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