Last month the Brazilian new passenger car market enjoyed one of its biggest surges in recent years as sales rocketed 35.9% year-on-year and Fiat Chrysler Automóveis (FCA) shared that bounce, beating the market as it climbed 37.2%.
In total 178,705 new passenger cars were sold in Brazil during April which represented a rise of nearly fifty thousand units on the same month last year.
FCA meanwhile came in with 24,395 sales car last month which was up six and a half thousand units on its performance during April 2017.
That positioned FCA as the second biggest selling passenger car brand in Brazil last month, behind Chevrolet (31,012 units) and a hundred units ahead of Volkswagen, although the German brand enjoyed a superb month, up 59.6% to close the deficit to FCA right down.
The Fiat brand added 15,268 cars during April and was up 38.6% year-on-year while the Jeep brand was up 34.2% after selling 9,080 cars.
After the first four months of the year a total of 630,208 new passenger cars have been sold in Brazil, up a fifth on last year as Latin America’s biggest market continues its strong start to the year.
FCA also has made gains this year but has underperformed the overall market, it’s up 12.6% to 82,723 units to the end of April.
The Fiat brand, despite its robust April, has lagged badly for the year-to-date, although it's up 9.1% after selling 51,522 cars. Jeep Meanwhile is up 19% to 31,036 units.
The Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) segment also enjoyed a barnstorming April, sales surging by a half, up 49.1%, to 31,327 units. Fiat enjoyed an even better month as demand for its commercial vehicles rocketed nearly five and a half thousand units and 70.8% to 12,932 units.
That left Fiat as the dominant brand in this segment for the month with more than double the LCV sales of its closest rival, Volkswagen, which finished April with 6,031 sales. Meanwhile Toyota was the third best selling carmaker in the LCV sector, it finished April on 3,202 units.
For the year-to-date 107,481 new LCVs have been sold in Brazil, up by a fifth on the first four months of last year. Fiat is on 40,694 units for the year-to-date and mirrors the market trend with a 20.3% rise, catching up the overall direction after its impressive April and making up for lagging behind the market earlier this year.
