According to the terminal retail sales statistics of the Brazilian automobile market, in April 2024, the sales of light vehicles (including passenger cars, SUVs and pickup trucks) in Brazil will be 207,000 units, a year-on-year increase of about 37%. At the same time, Chinese auto brands have performed the most eye-catching, with most automakers doubling their growth.
In the first four months, the total sales of Chinese cars in Brazil were 48,000 units, eight times that of the same period last year, and the market share of BYD, Chery and Great Wall alone reached 7.6% in April, while the total share of Chinese cars in Brazil last year was only 3%.
Among them, BYD's performance was the most eye-catching, with 7,037 terminal retail sales in April, a year-on-year increase of about 46 times, and its market share reached 3.4% that month. With explosive growth, BYD successfully overtook Chery and became the best-selling brand in Brazil among domestic cars.
BYD's impressive growth rate is mainly based on three factors.
First, the base is too low. In the same period last year, BYD only had a sales performance of more than 150 vehicles in Brazil, which objectively made BYD have the basis for dozens of times growth.
Second, BYD has stepped up its efforts to go overseas, especially in the Latin American market. The domestic new energy vehicle market is very competitive, and although BYD's sales are far ahead, it is also facing the challenge of sluggish growth. If it wants to further increase sales, BYD has to expand overseas markets, after all, overseas electric vehicles are basically blue ocean markets.
From this year's news, we can also see that BYD is accelerating the pace of overseas layout, focusing on Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe. BYD is currently building factories in Hungary, Thailand and Brazil to accelerate the localization process.
Third, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in Brazil is increasing. Brazil has a tropical climate, which is very suitable for the development of new energy vehicles. Last year, the penetration rate was only 2%, and with the rapid development of electric vehicles, the local automobile industry association expects this penetration rate to increase to about 10% by the end of this year.
BYD's models on sale in Brazil are all new energy vehicles, and the sharp increase in sales also means that the penetration rate of electric vehicles is also rising significantly.
In April this year, Chery also achieved a three-fold year-on-year increase in sales, with sales reaching 6,458 units, accounting for 3.1% of the market share, but compared with BYD's growth rate, it is much inferior. After all, Chery started earlier in South America, and its brand recognition and reputation have a certain foundation, and it has also established a vehicle factory in Brazil, which is indeed surprising to be surpassed by BYD.
At present, Chery is still dominated by fuel vehicles in the Brazilian market, and in this field, Chery's competitive advantage compared with Japanese cars is not large. Chery still wants to speed up the local layout of new energy vehicles, in order to achieve corner overtaking on this new track.
Great Wall Motors also achieved good results, with 2,281 units in April, an increase of nearly 24 times year-on-year, accounting for 1.1% of the market share. Great Wall, which has encountered a bottleneck in domestic sales growth, is trying to achieve a breakthrough in overseas markets, and has performed well in Russia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Among them, the sales volume of the Haval brand in Russia ranks third in the market, and Great Wall's SUVs and pickup trucks occupy more than 5% of the market share in Saudi Arabia.
(Note: The data in this article is based on the basic statistics of the retail side of the Brazilian market, and there may be a certain gap with the statistics of the Brazilian Automobile Manufacturers Association due to the statistical caliber and scope.) However, the association has not yet released specific data on the Brazilian car market in April this year)