Brazil’s Auto Sales Rose 5% Last Year

Automakers sold a record-high 3.8 million motor vehicles in Brazil last year compared with 3.6 million units in 2011 despite a 2% drop in production, carmaker group ANFAVEA reports.

Passenger-car demand climbed 8% to 2.9 million units in 2012. ANFAVEA says Brazilians rushed to buy vehicles before the government phases out industry tax breaks that enabled carmakers to cut retail prices by an estimated 7% last year.

Brazil's registrations of light commercial vehicles last year advanced less than 1% from 2011 to 782,600 units. Volume plummeted for trucks (-20% to 139,100 units) and buses (-17% to 28,800 units).

Fiat retained its place as the country's top-selling automaker in 2012 with a 14% jump to 679,300 cars, followed by Volkswagen (+11% to 655,200 units). Sales crept up at General Motors (+2% to 535,700 units) and Ford (3% to 255,400 units).

In December Brazil's motor-vehicle registration increased 5% from a year earlier to 359,400 units. The gains came almost entirely from passenger cars, whose volume grew 8% to 267,300 units.

The country's full-year output of motor vehicles slipped by 65,300 units to 3.3 million units in 2012, marking Brazil's first annual production decline in 10 years. ANFAVEA notes that the country's exports of such vehicles dropped by 111,200 units year over year to 410,800 vehicles.