Wikifleet update: Bolivia car market makes comeback, Paraguay lags

Despite the lacks in semiconductor supplies still impacting the automobile market, the world is gradually ridding itself of the COVID-19 pandemic and some automobile markets are showing a recovery, among them being Bolivia. 

While automobile sales in 2020 dropped 17.9% year-over-year to 24,537 units in the country, sales in the first quarter of 2021 rose 33% to 8,126 units. The trend continued in the second quarter with sales up 123% to 8,898 units and this was due to the extremely low performance in 2Q20.

As of brands, Suzuki led sales in August 2021 with a 94.7% jump year-over-year, followed by Nissan (+ 123%) and Renault (+15.1%), according to Wikifleet Bolivia. Toyota is also popular in the country.

2020 Suzuki Swift, Bolivia's best-selling model in 2020 (copyright: Suzuki) 

However, the same comeback is not occurring in the neighboring country of Paraguay, according to its Wikifleet page.

While sales in 2020 fell 22.7% year-over-year to 23,273 units, the country started 2021 even worse, seeing a 43.7% drop year-on-year in January to 1,549 units. As for 1Q21, sales were down 12.7% compared to the first quarter of 2020, reaching only 5,854 units by the end of March.

As for brand performance, Volkswagen led in the January-May period with a 6.1% uptick year-over-year, and Kia followed (+ 21.6%). Other popular brands in the country are Chevrolet, Hyundai, and Toyota. Meanwhile, Mercedes Benz showed one of the slowest comebacks in the first semester with sales up by only 1% (YTD May).

2020 Chevrolet Onix, Paraguay's best-selling model in 2020 (copyright: Chevrolet)

As approximately 60% of car sales in Paraguay (some 48,000 vehicles) are used car imports, the country is considered a used car market haven, according to Wikifleet. Most of the vehicles are coming from South Korea, USA, Japan, China, and Brazil.

For more information on these countries and others, visit Wikifleet, a collaborative effort by the Global Fleet team covering five regions and nearly 50 countries around the world.