Chevrolet, Kia Struggle as August Vehicle Registrations Drop 6.7% in Colombia

There were 20,901 cars registered in Colombia last month, a drop of 6.7% compared to the 22,409 seen in August 2016, according to the National Federation of Traders (FENALCO), one of the country’s largest industry associations

The year-to-date total of 152,482 so far is also 2.9% below the number of registrations from January through August 2016, reported the organization. Despite that slight downturn, FENALCO still projects the year-long total in 2017 to be above the sum seen last year.

Chevrolet, the leading automotive brand in Colombia, accounted for 22.0% of the total in August. It was followed by Renault (20.3%), Nissan (8.8%), Kia (8.5%), and Mazda (7.6%). Together, these five leading brands represented 67.2% of the automobiles registered last month.

Compared to August 2016, Nissan showed the highest growth at 23.6%. Mazda was nearly steady (with 0.6% growth), while Renault (a drop of -2.1%), Chevrolet (-12.8%), and Kia (-20.6%) all had negative results.

Only Chevrolet had more vehicles registered in August than Renault, and the two companies combined to make up nearly half of all registrations in Colombia. (Photo credit: Jared Wade)

In terms of specific makes, the top five models registered so far this year in Colombia are Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Sail, Renault Sandero, Renault Logan, and Kia Picanto. The Sendero has seen the biggest improvement compared to its performance at this time last year, while the other four all showed declines in comparison to August 2016.

In terms of the types of vehicles registered, FENALCO divides the automobile industry in Colombia into various different categories: cars, utility vehicles, pickups, wagons, vans, freight cars, commercial cars, and taxis. Registrations for utility vehicles and pickups were the only categories that showed an increase in August. Utility vehicles recorded the largest growth in registrations, with a 7.8% uptick, while pickups increased their numbers by 5.0%.

Geographically, Bogotá continues to dominate the market. The capital contributed more than one-third (34.2%) of all registrations in August, while the next two largest Colombian cities, Medellín and Cali, accounted for 15.4% and 11.0%, respectively.

Bogotá and Medellín each showed a slight improvement, jumping 2.6% and 1.6% from the same month in 2016. Bucaramanga, the capital of the Santander department in eastern Colombia, had the biggest decline among large cities at -11.9%.

Automobiles were not the only transportation category to show disappointing numbers last number. Motorcycle buying has also been sluggish throughout 2017, with just 279,914 motos registered from January through the end of July. This is down 14.5% from the 327,613 registered from January through July in 2016.

The five most-registered brands of motorcycles this year in July were Bajaj, Yamaha, Honda, AKT, and Suzuki.