Panama Auto Market hit the new All-Time record in 2014 with sales near 60.000 fueled by strong consumer demand. Toyota boomed sales and overtook Hyundai on top of the ranking.
In December 2014, according to data released by A.D.A.P., the Asociación de Distribuidores de Automóviles de Panamá, total new Light Passengers Vehicles sold have been 4.410, up 3.5% from the correspondent period last year.
Full Year 2014 sales in Panama had been 59.692, up 17.0% from 2013, hitting the new all-time record.
Recent data suggest that GDP growth easily surpassed the 6.0% mark in Q4 and in 2014 as a whole. Moreover, the economy is expected to continue on a steady growth path.
Unlike last year, when growth was driven primarily by large infrastructure projects, economic activity this year will be sustained by different service-oriented sectors such as trade and logistics, banking and insurance, as well as tourism.
President Juan Carlos Varela, just seven months into his administration, is actively cracking down on corruption and pushing for more prudent fiscal spending.
Meanwhile, the Panama Canal expansion project is roughly 90% complete and the new waterway is scheduled to open for traffic early next year.
The automotive market has a new leader because Toyota overtook Hyundai on top of the list with 14.223 sales in the year, up 22.8% with a market share of 23.8%, up 1.1 points of share.
Negative was the performance of the former leader Hyundai with sales at 10.640 units (-8.4%) and share at 17.8%, down 4.0 points.
Third was Kia with 9.635 sales (+21.8%) followed by Nissan with 6.652 (-10.6%) and Chevrolet with 2.999 units (+47.4%).
As far as the car groups performance and ranking, the leader was Hyundai-Kia with 34.0% of market share, ahead of Toyota with 23.8% and Renault-Nissan with 11.1%.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for Top Brands
