Industry Developments

BMI's revised Business Environment Ranking for the automotive industry sees Brazil fall to fourth place from joint third, on a composite score of 39. This is because Brazil's economic... 2006-08-04

The light vehicle market was strong in 2005 with sales of 182,347 units, up 22.7% on a year earlier. Of these 113,000 units were cars and 22,000 SUVs.Assuming the premium market is... 2006-08-04

In terms of car-model sales, both attractively-priced and premium-priced cars did well in the first five months of 2006. The Volkswagen Gol continues to lead the pack, with accumulated... 2006-08-04

Vehicle demand boomed in 2004 and 2005, having recovered from a deep trough in 2003, when foreign exchange controls took their toll on the manufacturing sector. In 2005 GDP expanded... 2006-08-04

US carmaker General Motors has hit yet another roadblock, this time in a spat with its tyre supplier Goodyear. GM has filed a suit with Michigan's Macomb County Court in which it... 2006-08-03

New vehicle sales in Canada were down 8.5% y-o-y in July, reaching 141,600 units compared with 154,800 units in July 2005, However, this does not yet signal hard times for the Canadian... 2006-08-02

The Big Three continue to take a beating on home turf as July sales show more negative growth for the domestic players. General Motors, while still clinging on to its position as... 2006-08-02

Record sales posted by the Chilean auto industry in the first six months of 2006 have left industry experts optimistic about beating sales records relating to cars, SUVs and light... 2006-07-31

French carmaker Renault has unveiled better-than-expected results for the first half of 2006. Despite a 25% fall in net profit to EUR1.62bn, the company posted an operating profit... 2006-07-28

Chile's luxury car segment is experiencing something of a boom and the trend looks set to continue. The Chilean association of car manufacturers Anac notes that sales of cars priced... 2006-07-27