Good start to the automotive year

While local factories ask the government to work on new trade agreements, vehicle sales continue to be dominated by national models, a trend that has already been observed in 2022.

patents

The number of 0 km vehicles patented during January amounted to 50,085 units, which represented an increase of 15.1% year-on-year, according to the report from the Association of Automotive Dealers (Acara).

The report also highlighted that in the comparison with December, vehicle sales registered an increase of 154%, since in the last month of 2022 19,714 units were registered.

With these numbers, the sector is confident that the final numbers for 2023 will exceed the 407,000 registrations of last year by 5%.

In this regard, the president of Acara, Ricardo Salomé, said that it will be “key to give continuity to the spillover effect to other industries by continuing to promote national production, which today supplies almost 63% of the cars that are patented, something that has always been a old dream of the sector and that seemed impossible to achieve, but that is a trend that has come to stay”.

“Beyond the fact that if we had had more cars the figure would have been much higher, January is giving us a good initial boost, in a year in which we aspire to increase the 407,000 patented units by 5% in 2022,” the manager said in a statement. .

According to the January report, the vehicle most chosen by Argentines was once again the Fiat Cronos, which is produced in the province of Córdoba, with 7,076 units sold and a 14.8% market share.

Following among the best-selling models in January were the Peugeot 208 (3,873) produced at the Stellantis terminal in El Palomar; the Volkswagen Amarok pickup that leaves the General Pacheco plant (2,956); the Toyota Hilux (2,892); the Ford Ranger (2,739); and in fifth place the Toyota Etios (2,496), the first imported model (in this case from Brazil) that appears in the ranking.

Then followed the light utility Renault Kangoo II (1,621), also made in Córdoba; followed by four Brazilian models: Chevrolet Tracker (1,580); the Toyota Corolla Cross (1,542); the Volkswagen POLO (1,440); and the Toyota Yaris (1,285).

Thus, with this month’s performance, the Toyota brand continued to be the terminal with the highest sales in Argentina, with a total of 10,310 units.

Behind the Japanese were Fiat, with 7,816 patents; Volkswagen, with 6,080; Ford, with 4,540; and Peugeot, with 4,425 units.

Production

The national production of vehicles in January was 27,184 units, with an increase of 45.8% compared to the same month of 2022 and a drop of 16.8% compared to last December, reported the Association of Automotive Factories (Adefa).

With a similar trend, sales to dealers accounted for 22,112 units and had an improvement of 9.8% compared to January of the previous year and a decrease of 34% in relation to December.

Regarding sales abroad, Adefa specified that the terminals exported 11,358 vehicles in the first month of 2023, 22.2% more than January last year and a decrease of 49.8% compared to December 2022. .

“Although the volumes for January reflect the usual seasonality due to plant stoppages for vacations, the behavior of the main variables is aligned with the estimated projections for the year of growth in the order of 10 to 15%, which is It is reflected in year-on-year comparisons,” said Martín Galdeano, president of Adefa, in a statement.

During the first month of the year, several of the terminals implemented the vacation break until mid-January, which meant that there were 12 business days of production, three less than in December.

Galdeano said that it is “very important” to continue working together with the value chain and the Government, especially in “giving impetus to international negotiations.”

“Given the strong export profile that our sector forged and which represents 39% of MOI (Manufacturing of Industrial Origin) exports, contributing an annual foreign exchange income of US$8,000 million in 2022, it is necessary to continue reinforcing this process with the advancement of new trade agreements and seeking to improve access conditions in more markets in the region”, emphasized the head of Adefa and Ford Argentina.

Source: Ambito