Like a growing number of Colombians these days, Antonio Benevides of Bogota just bought his first car. Rising incomes and affordable terms are causing a surge in car sales in the country and elsewhere in Latin America, where economies are flush with the windfall from the global commodities boom.
But low prices are another factor in the sales surge, and that puts Benevides, a 26-year-old amusement park worker, in the middle of a different, still emerging consumer trend. He bought an inexpensive Chinese import, a brand new Chery QQ compact, for about US$9,000 -- or US$3,000 cheaper than the comparable car from French car maker Renault, whose tires he also kicked.
“That difference in price is what put a new car within my reach for the first time,” Benevides said as he drove the car off the dealership lot near Bogota’s El Dorado international airport. “I’ve heard they hold together well, that they are cheap to operate and, as you can see, they are not bad looking.”
Chinese auto manufacturers, which sold about 18 million cars on their home turf in 2011, are increasingly looking to other emerging markets as stepping-stones in their long-term quest for global trade prominence and perhaps winning over U.S. and European motorists in decades to come. For a variety of reasons, Latin America is increasingly a focus of that strategy.
That the region can be a lucrative place to make and sell cars is hardly a proprietary secret of China's. GM South America chief Jaime Ardilla has long touted the Latin American operation of the U.S. automotive giant as the company’s crown jewel in terms of return on investment and growth.
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