El Salvador vehicles market falls due to the global pandemic affecting sales. Indeed, Full Year 2020 sales have been 6.139, down 23.7% compared to 2019. Toyota remains the leader and gains a small margin over Nissan.
Economic Environment
Economic conditions likely remained downbeat in Q3, despite improving somewhat, after Q2’s record GDP contraction due to the fallout from the pandemic. Economic activity continued to shrink in August, albeit at the softest pace since March, which suggests that the downturn has bottomed out.
Moreover, exports grew for the first time in seven months in September, while imports decreased at the softest pace in six months, hinting at a pickup in domestic demand. Meanwhile, remittances continued to climb from April’s collapse through September, as employment levels improved in the U.S.
However, Covid-19 cases continued to rise in September–October, which could weigh on activity in Q4. In brighter news, in late October, the OPEC Fund for International Development approved a USD 35 million public sector loan to support small- and medium-sized businesses hit by the pandemic.
Market Trend
The Salvador vehicle market has been affected in 2020 by the global COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted sales significantly.
The auto market has constantly been losing terrain in recent years after the record scored in 2012.
Indeed, in the last two years the new vehicles market declined and in 2017 hit a negative peak, with 8.783 sales, down 3.3% from the previous year.
After several discussions regarding the opportunity to define more strict rules for the import of used vehicles, no actions had been taken so far by the government, and the new vehicle sales are penalized by the still huge bulk of used imported vehicles market.
In 2018, the market marginally recovered, with sales at 9.379, up 6.8%. However, in 2019 registrations fell again, leading to 8.044 full-year sales, down 14.2%.
Full-Year sales for 2020 have been 6.139, reporting a 23.7% decrease compared to 2019.
Brand-wise, this year the leader Toyota (-20%) gained 0.7% market share, followed by Nissan (-23.9%). Chevrolet (-25.4%) was in the third position and lost 0.3% market share.
The most sold model in the country is the Chevrolet Spark with 650 sales (-27.8%), holding 10.6% market share.
