13.05.2011 FIAT COMFORTABLY LEADS THE BRAZILIAN MARKET DURING APRIL

FIAT PUNTO BRAZIL

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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