Despite the government of Brazil extending tax incentives on new car purchases to the end of October, sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in September plummeted 32% compared with August this year. Sales were also down 5.4% compared with September last year.
A total of 277,614 cars and LCVs were sold in Brazil in September, Dow Jones Newswires said, citing figures released by Brazilian automotive dealers association Fenabrave.
In May this year, the Brazilian government announced incentives to boost flagging car sales in the country. The incentives came in the form of reduced automotive taxes, and these were set to expire in August this year.
In expectation of the ending of incentives in August, dealers offered promotions resulting in a monthly sales record in August. This, however, led to a drop in demand in September, Reuters said.
“The decline was beyond what we had imagined,” Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo reported Fenabrave president Flavio Meneghetti as saying.
Sales of heavy trucks fell by 8% compared with September 2011 levels. Month-on-month, sales in this segment were down 31%, Fenabrave said. In all, a total of 288,100 cars, LCVs, trucks and buses were sold in the country last month.
According to the association, 2.79 million vehicles have been sold in Brazil in the first three quarters of this year. This translates into an increase of 4% compared with sales recorded during the January-September 2011 period.
