Chilean Vehicles Market bounces back in October 2024. Monthly sales registered 26,499 new registrations (+8.5%). YTD figures at 241,684 were down 5.8% from the prior year. Hyundai climbed one spot, closing in on Toyota which fell 13% in year-on-year volume.
Market Trend and Outlook
Chile’s economy is expected to grow by 2.3% in 2024 and 2.5% in 2025, driven by improving real wages, lower inflation, and supportive global demand for minerals. Despite this recovery, investment growth may remain restrained due to stagnant credit and subdued business confidence. The central bank plans to reduce interest rates further, aiming for a neutral stance by mid-2025, while fiscal policy will be less expansionary but still sustainable. Inflation is projected to fall to the 3% target by mid-2025, and unemployment is anticipated to decrease. Challenges include potential risks from a slower Chinese economy and climate-induced extreme events. To foster more inclusive growth, Chile needs to streamline regulatory processes, enhance its tax system to address inequalities, and support green projects for sustainable development.
After months of decline in year-on-year volume, Chile’s vehicle market rebounded in October 2024, with monthly sales rising to 26,499 units, an 8.5% increase. However, year-to-date figures remain down by 5.8%, totaling 241,684 units.
Looking at cumulative data up to October 2024 brand-wise, Toyota maintained leadership with 19,144 (-13%), followed by Hyundai -up 1 spot- at 16,781 (+0.9%) in front of Chevrolet -down 1 spot- with 16,670 sales (-8.2%) and Suzuki -up 2 spots- with 16,269 sales (+13.6%).
Kia -down 1 spot- ranked in 5th position with 15,739 sales (+5.8%), followed by Peugeot -up 1 spot- at 13,563 sales (-7.3%), Ford -up 1 spot- at 12,558 (+17.3%) and MG -up 1 spot- with 9,825 new registrations (+1.7%)
Mitsubishi gained 1 spot ranking into 9th position with 9,042 sales (-0.2%), followed by Changan -up 4 spots- closing the top 10 with 8,137 new registrations (+9.1%).
Looking at specific models the Toyota Hilux secured leadership despite a 7.3% year-on-year loss in sales, followed by the Mitsubishi L200 down 7.3%.
Medium-Term Market Trend
In the last decade the Chilean vehicles market has had many ups and downs. From 2011 to 2015 the market fluctuated in the low 200k range. First rising to a maximum of 263,146 in 2013 to then fall down to a minimum of 211,810 in 2015. By the end of 2016 the vehicles market in Chile had already gained 9.0% compared to the previous year, with 2017 following suit growing 52.5% and 2018 reporting a peak of 372,646 sales. 2019 marked the end of this 3 year uptrend, with sales reaching 369,864 but the end of the year.
The arrival of the pandemic in 2020 caused the market to drop 29.9% back down to 259,299.
It is clear that the issues faced during the pandemic weren’t due to structural problems in the industry, in fact, in 2021 the market reported an amazing growth, gaining 60.3% up to an all time high of 415,612 sales. The positive momentum continued into 2022, that totaled 425,856 new registrations, a 2.5% growth from the prior year. Despite the new-all time high, the second half of the 2022 strongly underperformed, with the last 5 months of the year posting losses.
A combination of factors are behind the current industry struggle: the disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for the production of microchips and Governments push towards Evs, an expensive alternative for low income consumers. At the moment affects from this last point are very mild, due to the low adoption of BEVs in South American countries (0.45% of total market share in South America). In fact during the 2023 the market fell 26.7% with 312,191 registrations.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands and Top 10 Manufacturers Group.
