After the Colombian peso devalued following the Central Bank’s announcement that the economy was slowing, car sales fell to 25,662 units in August, down 10% year on year. Year to date sales of 212,598 vehicles held steady versus 2011.
The Colombian peso lost COP36.85 against the US dollar during August, down 2.02%. According to Bloomberg, this was about double that of another South American currency, the Argentine peso which lost 1.17% during the month.
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Colombian authorities now see 2012 growth of 4%, down from 5% forecast earlier, not bad given the current global economy high and lows but nonetheless a bigger fall than expected. This 1% dip won’t lower annual car sales because, according to Econometría statisticians, the year should end with almost the same 320,000 units sold than in 2011.
This year’s average monthly tally to date supports that and it should be easy for the industry to sell another 100,000 units in the four months of the year, taking into account the monthly average is 26,500 and an expected November boost from the Bogotá motor show.
According to latest data, even though passenger car sales were down (-12.0%) along with taxis (-11.4%) and pickup trucks (-12.5%), the truck (+107.1%), bus (+27.1%), van (+32.4%) and SUV segments (13.2%) all grew.
The brand top 10 chart looks like this: Chevrolet, 28.0%; Renault, 13.1%; Hyundai, 9.7%; Kia, 8.4%; Nissan, 8.2%; Toyota, 4.4%; Mazda, 3.3%; Volkswagen, 3.1%; Ford, 3.0%; Mercedes Benz (incl passenger cars and trucks), 1.0%.
The August premium segment chart is: BMW, 35.0%; Mercedes Benz, 28.2%; Audi, 19.7%; Volvo, 9.7%; Land Rover, 5.0%; Porsche, 2.2%; and Jaguar, 0.1%.
The most recent launches were: Suzuki Celerio, Ford Mustang and Escape, Mercedes Benz B Class, Chevrolet Sail, Audi Q3 and BMW 6 Series Gran Coupé.
A noteworthy news snippet from August: Autogermana SA celebrated its 30th year as the official BMW Group importer in Colombia and opened four new outlets – two service centres (in Bogotá and Medellín) and two showrooms (in Barranquilla and Villavicencio).
