The rise in fuel prices and taxes that make cars more expensive are the main reasons for the drop in sales recorded at the beginning of the year. The conclusion is based on a study carried out by Ipsos Brasil, a global market research company.
Spontaneously, the interviewees listed five barriers to buying a car these days – new and used, involving exchange or not.
According to Ipsos, 43.1% of the 1,549 people interviewed in Brazil mentioned the price of fuel as the main obstacle. It was the most cited point, followed by the high tax burden (37.6%) and economic instability (36.8%).
The survey was conducted between October and November 2021. Therefore, it shows that consumer dismay predates the mega-increase in gasoline and diesel announced in March.
Inflation in jobs is reflected in yet another topic of the survey. When listing what are the primary factors for making a purchase decision, respondents cited fuel economy in first place, with 40.6% of mentions.
The results help to understand the bad moment of the automotive sector. New vehicle licensing fell by 23.2% in the comparison between the first quarters of 2022 and 2021. With 402,800 units sold, the period from January to March of this year recorded the worst result since 2006, according to data from Fenabrave (association vehicle distributors).
Among the models used, there is a 24.6% drop in negotiations this year, and this is one of the most worrying points at the moment.
In 2021, zero-kilometer car sales were held back by a lack of components. With no immediate delivery option, many consumers opted for second-hand cars, whose sales soared. Now both segments record losses compared to last year.
Fenabrave’s figures consider the sale of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, buses and trucks.
The high cost of financing appears in the fourth position among the most remembered obstacles, with 34.8% of the citations, followed by concern about the cost of ownership generated by a car (33.6%) and by unemployment or uncertainty with the work (30.7%).
The prices of combustion cars are seen as a barrier to the purchase by 27.7%, while 25.8% say that the values charged for hybrid and electric models are barriers that prevent the closing of the deal.
Respondents’ complaints about the tax burden bring a little hope to automakers and dealers of new and used cars. The automotive sector expects that the reduction of IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products) rates will have a positive impact on sales this month.
But the economic instability that closes the “top 3” of barriers to purchase gains weight in the current scenario, in which there are timid projections of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth, uncertainties that increase in a year of majority elections and global problems generated by the war in Ukraine.
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