El Salvador vehicles market in 2019 registered the last decade’s lowest score. Indeed, Year to Date November figures have been 7.374, projecting the full year at 7.938, down 15.4%. Toyota is holding the crown, a few units ahead of Nissan and Chevrolet.
Economic Environment
While comprehensive GDP data will not be available until late December, economic growth likely accelerated slightly in the third quarter, as suggested by an uptick in economic activity growth.
Moreover, remittance growth gained traction in Q3, which should have lent a hand to private consumption, while bank lending remained strong despite slowing slightly in Q3 from Q2, likely bolstering fixed investment. Turning to the fourth quarter, remittance growth held up well and merchandise exports increased slightly in October.
Market Trend
Salvadoran auto market is constantly losing terrain in recent years, after the record scored in the 2012.
Indeed, in the last two years the new vehicles market declined and in 2017 hit a negative peak, with 8.783 sales, down 3.3% from the previous year.
After several discussions regarding the opportunity to define more strictly rules for the import of used vehicles, no actions had been taken so far by the government and the new vehicles sales are penalized by the still huge bulk of used imported vehicles market.
In 2018, the market marginally recovered, with sales at 9.379, up 6.8%.
However, in 2019, according to data released by the General Directorate of Customs, registrations are falling sharply down and will hit the lowest volume of the last decade. Indeed, Year to Date November figures have been 7.374, projecting the full year at 7.938, down 15.4%.
Toyota keeps leading the market with 15.7% of share – selling 1.155 units – not too far from Nissan and Chevrolet, which hold respectively 14.9% and 14.1% of share.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for Top Brands
