Features
2 Jan 20

Latin America Top 10 best-selling cars in 2019

American car brands are continuing their dominance in Latin America and the Caribbean as inflation throughout the region, in general, are slowly becoming under control.

Reaching a 15-month low of approximately 6.9% in the fourth quarter of the year, inflation looks to be on target except for Venezuela and Argentina which are suffering from FX weaknesses.

Ranked as the best-selling passenger vehicle from January-November and to maintain its No. 1 spot for the fourth year in a row is the subcompact hatch Chevrolet Onix. Made in Brazil, more than 250,000 units were sold, up 8.6% year-over-year, according to automotive research and data group Focus2Move. 


2019 Chevrolet Onix (source: Chevrolet)

Coming in second during the 11-month period was the subcompact Ford Ka which comes in a hatchback and a sedan. Its sales increased 4.4% to 157,361 units and will also maintain its ranking for the year, giving US-made cars a healthy lead in the market.


2019 Ford Ka (source: Ford)

The following brands make up the remaining top 10 and are likely to remain that way for the year. However, as their sales performances are quite close to one another, their rankings could change after full-year results are tabulated, more so for the battle for No. 9.

Ranked No. 3 is the Toyota Hilux, the only pickup in the Top 10. A total of 115,057 units were sold, down 4.6% year-over-year. Meanwhile, 111,357 Nissan Versa sedans were sold, down 10.3%, and 108,560 Volkswagen Gol hatches were sold, down 9.1%.

Wrapping up the top 10 is Renault Kwid hatch with 104,137 sales (-3.3%), Hyundai HB20 hatch with 95,723 (-5.1%), Chevrolet Prisma sedan with 87,812 (-54.7%), Nissan Kicks compact SUV with 82,282 (+9.8%), and Volkswagen Polo hatch at No. 10 with 84,084 units sold (+17.1%).

Although the research and data group considered a total of 41 countries throughout the region, the largest markets of Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina are the main sales influencers.

When considering passenger vehicles as well as light commercial vehicles (LCVs), Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina have total car parks of 65.3 million, 32.3mn, and 13.4mn.

Authored by: Daniel Bland