Although Chile has only half as many inhabitants, more new cars are already sold there than in Argentina

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The sale of new vehicles in Chile during October reached 38,551 units, which meant a year-on-year increase of 6.4%, and 3.8% compared to the same month of 2018, a historic year for the sector in that country.

In this way, in the accumulated of the year, the neighboring country patented 335,824 units, a figure with which it surpassed sales in Argentina that totaled 335,000 units, according to La Tercera. This is the first time in history that this has happened.

The figures are striking if you compare the population of each country – Chile has around 20 million inhabitants while Argentina has more than 45 million – and the size of their potential markets. But times changed, and the economic crisis impacts locally with a pandemic that hit much harder in Argentina, especially considering the recession it has been going through since 2018 and the high inflation, which already exceeds 52% annually.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Chile

To this must be added the obstacles to imports that weigh on the economy in general and the sector in particular that causes the supply of vehicles in Argentina to be restricted.

As regards the figures, La Tercera took as a reference the reports provided by the Chilean National Automotive Association (ANAC) and the Argentinean Dealers Association (Acara). “This situation allowed Chile to achieve a position it had not imagined, but knowing that it is a circumstantial situation due to economic and health issues”, reported the Chilean portal.

On the other hand, the portal noted another considerable difference between the two countries’ brands and models that lead sales. Argentina, a vehicle-producing country with state protectionism, has Toyota as the leading brand, with 20.3% of the market, followed by Fiat (14.5%) and Volkswagen (16.2%).

Chile, with more brands and free trade agreements with most of the manufacturing countries, has a more atomized market, led by Chevrolet (9.9%), followed by Hyundai (6.9%) and Nissan (6.1%).

It should be recalled that the number of vehicles patented during October in Argentina amounted to 27,513 units, which represented a decrease of 26.6% year-on-year, considering that 12 months ago, 37,474 units had been registered according to the Association of Automotive Dealers (Acara).

Thus, in the ten accumulated months of 2021, 335,000 units were patented, 16.7% more than in the same period of 2020, when 287,006 had been registered.

The president of Acara, Ricardo Salomé, commented that “in October what was advanced in September became more acute and this explains that there are numbers with a year-on-year decrease but also compared to the previous month, despite the effort and the trade of the dealer sector to meet a demand that remains strong”.

“We continue with almost empty stores due to the lack of units to offer because of a scarce local release of imported cars which, added to the global crisis of microchips, generated a combo difficult to overcome”, explained Salomé.

Acara, which publishes monthly figures on car registrations, warned: “Hopefully we will be able to complete the year with 380,000 units when we remember that in the first quarter we had projections of 450,000 registrations and then we went to 420,000 until we were left with an insufficient flow of units to commercialize”.

By models, local vehicles dominate in Argentina, with the Fiat Cronos at the top of the sales ranking with 10.7% of total sales, followed by the Toyota Hilux (7.3%) and the Peugeot 208 (4.3%).

Meanwhile, in Chile, the top three best-sellers are monopolized by SUVs of Chinese origin. In first place is the Chery Tiggo 2 with 2.8% of total registrations, followed by the MG ZS (2.7%) and further back the Chevrolet Groove (2.4%).