7.49% is a curious number, it doesn’t look significant, it doesn’t sound significant, but it is……very significant. 7.49% is the economic growth rate for Brazil in 2010. Considering that in 2010 the rest of the world virtually cried itself to sleep over their respective economic figures, 7.49% growth is nothing short of an economic miracle. It’s thanks to the confidence this brings that Brazils vehicle sales have increased by over 10% (year end figures not available till December). With all this in mind we look to extend our top 10 car series with a look at the top Brazilian cars so far in 2011.
| Model | Size | |
| 1 | VW Gol (It really is called the VW Gol) | Small |
| 2 | Fiat UNO | Small |
| 3 | Chevrolet Celta | Small |
| 4 | Chevrolet Corsa sedan | medium |
| 5 | Fiat Strada compact | pick up |
| 6 | Fiat Siena | medium |
| 7 | Fiat Palio | small |
| 8 | Ford Fiesta Hatch | small |
| 9 | VW Voyage | medium |
| 10 | VW Saveiro | Utility |
The most notable part about the top ten has to be that almost 45% of all Brazilian car sales are taken up by the top ten vehicles. Compare this with around 20% in China and one starts to appreciate that a small number of operators (just 3 really; VW, Fiat and GM/Chevrolet) are taking up a large amount of the marketplace. Another point to note is the dominance of small to medium vehicles. Even the medium sized vehicles tend more towards the small sized sedans and sales of large “commodore style” sedans are not significant enough to break into the top ten.
Like the case with India, the top ten from Brazil simply tells us that the small car market is growing at a faster rate than the big gas guzzler market. From the figures we see from all the entries in the series we get a real sense that fuel efficiency has broken into the customer’s checklist in a massive way It seems now that global car manufacturers can no longer afford to ignore the big push towards more fuel efficient vehicles. Will we ever see 5 small cars in the Australian top 10? Only time will tell.
