Imported sales reacted in September, but fell 26% this year

By Redação AutoIndústria/ Translated by Jorge Meditsch

A larger automobile and light commercial vehicles offer at the dealerships granted the brands associated with Abeifa, the Brazilian association of vehicle importers and manufacturers, an encouraging September for sales.
The sector negotiated last month 3,469 vehicles produced abroad, a 120% surge over August figures and 85.4% more than in September 2021.

“The availability of more products allowed our affiliated to meet the repressed demand from the last months caused especially by the semiconductors crisis and the unstable supply of finished products. September has shown us that, gradually, the headquarters are beginning to release products for export more regularly”, commented João Henrique de Oliveira, Abeiva’s president.

Despite this reaction, the balance after the first nine months of 2022 is negative compared to the performance over the same months last year, already a low sales period.

From January through September 2021, the importers negotiated 19,857 vehicles from other countries. This year, there were only 14,712 registers, a 26% setback.

It is noticeable that only three brands are responsible for almost 70% of the sales computed by the 11 Abeiva associates. Kia is the leader, with 3,999 units delivered to customers, followed by Volvo, which sold 3.538 automobiles. The third in the ranking is the sophisticated Porsche, with 2,396 units.

2022 total numbers still indicate that the sector will probably have its worst performance in 15 years. In 2007, the Abeifa associates summed 12.5 thousand registers. Even in 2020, with the health measures that took to dealerships on lockdown for weeks, the sector sold 27.4 thousand vehicles.