Vehicle registrations in May totaled 39,549 units, up 11.8 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to the Association of Automobile Dealers (ACARA). 198,078 zero kilometers have been patented so far this year, a figure that is also 11.8 percent more than in the first five months of the previous year.
As has been the case since last year, almost 70% of the zero kilometers sold by dealerships is produced locally, also because automotive terminals are sending more and more units to their commercial networks, but above all because of the Ministry’s restriction on the importation of vehicles del Commercio, which is responsible for the Import System (SIRA).
Even with this tight environment, dealerships are selling more units than they did a year ago. For Ricardo Salomé, secretary general of ACARA, “this year we will end up with a total sale of between 425,000 and 450,000 units, which will continue to be a lower figure. The market requires at least 100,000 additional units,” said the entrepreneur.
The truth is that a decade ago the same dealership network sold nearly a million units, spread across twice as many models as can be purchased today.
A comparative study of the domestic market for the sale of zero kilometer vehicles, carried out by ACARA itself, shows that ten years ago more than double of them were sold than today, and furthermore 80% of sales were spread over 39 models. In 2013, the patent was close to 960,000 units.
Today, with expectations of year-end sales of 450,000 vehicles, 80% of those sales are split into just 21 models, nearly half as much as a decade ago.
But not only have the conditions of access to vehicles changed, but many of today’s customers no longer consider the car as an option.
Source: Clarin
