Paraguayan vehicles market falls due to the global pandemic affecting sales. Indeed, Full Year 2020 sales have been 23.273, down 22.7% compared to 2019. Isuzu is the only gainer in the leaderboard, increasing sales by 2%.
Economic Environment
The economic situation likely improved in Q3 yet remained challenging, after GDP contracted in Q2 due to a significant decline in domestic demand. Activity shrank in August after having expanded in July, mainly dragged down by a deterioration in the services sector. Moreover, although consumer sentiment recovered somewhat in Q3, it remained downbeat overall.
However, public investment soared in the January-September period, providing some relief to the economy. Meanwhile, the difficult economic situation was reflected in a considerable drop in tax revenue in the first 10 months of the year, although October saw only a slight reduction compared to last year, hinting at firming activity in Q4.
In politics, Benigno López recently stepped down as finance minister and was replaced by Óscar Llamosas, who is advocating for streamlining public spending in fiscal reforms to come.
Market Trend
The Paraguayan vehicle market has been affected in 2020 by the global COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted sales significantly.
The market in recent years suffered heavy losses and in 2016 sales declined 15.3% from the previous year at a negative peak of 20.802. Since early 2017 the market started to recover and the total light-vehicle sales have been 27.851, up 33.9%. In 2018 the scenario further improved and the automotive industry scored a new all-time record, ending with 35.403 sales (+27.1%).
However, as reported by the local Automotive Manufacturers Association in 2019 the market reported a sharp sales drop (-15%) with 30.097 units sold.
After starting the year with strong positive growth (+20.4%), the market quickly collapsed in March as the virus struck. The sharpest drop in sales this year was in April when sales declined by 67.8%. In the following months, the market remained down in double-digits but maintained a positive recovery trend. Finally, sales were down only 1.5% in November and grew 14.4% in December.
Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 23.273, reporting a 22.7% decrease compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, this year the new leader Kia (-0.1%) gained 4% market share, overtaking Chevrolet (-17.3%), which gained 1% share. Hyundai on the other hand gained 2.1% share, falling 7%. Volkswagen fell 2.8% gaining 2.5% share, overtaking Toyota which lost 19.6%.
Nissan lost 6.9%, followed by Fiat (-7.6%) and Jeep -up 2 spots- which lost 9.3% sales. Closing the leaderboard we have Isuzu -up 3 spots- registering the only growth in the leaderboard by gaining 2% and Mercedes rising 4 spots and losing 2.2% sales.
The most sold model in the country is the Chevrolet Onix with 2.713 sales (+9.2%), holding 11.7% market share.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for the Top 10 Brands
