El Salvador vehicles market in the 2017 posted the third fall in a row, hitting the worse sales level of this decade. New vehicles sales struggles due to the strong competitions from grey import. Toyota is market leader ahead of Nissan.
Economic Environment
Salvadoran economy performed well in the months following the third quarter, in which growth benefited from a strong agricultural sector and a solid showing in industry. In December, remittance inflows increased 6.3% year-on-year.
Moreover, from January to December, exports grew strongly compared to the same period a year earlier, although higher oil prices spurred imports to grow at a faster pace.
Market Trend
Salvadoran auto market is constantly losing terrain in recent years, after the record scored in the 2012.
Indeed, according with data released by the General Directorate of Customs, in the last three years the new vehicles market declined hitting in the 2017 the lowest level in this decade, with 8.796 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.
At brand-wise, the market leader is Toyota with 2.232 sales (-11.8%) and 25.4% of market share, followed by Nissan with 1.152 units (-2.0%) and Kia with 1.092 (-20.0%).
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for Top Brands
