Automotive Industry
The Brazilian automotive industry posted its best monthly result of 2025 for domestic vehicle sales in May. Last month’s 213,500 registrations represented an 8.6% increase over April’s 196,600 units and a significant 16.6% increase over May 2024, when 183,000 vehicles were sold.
Brazilians have already purchased 926,800 cars and light commercial vehicles in the first five months of the year, 6.1% more than in the same period last year.
Once again, Fiat maintained its lead in sales, with 21.6% of registrations in May, albeit with a slight decrease of 0.2 percentage points. It was followed by Volkswagen, which held a 17.4% share and the largest positive variation — 1 percentage point.
Chevrolet closed the month with 10.2% of registrations, ahead of Hyundai (8.7%) and Toyota (7.3%). The Japanese brand had the largest decline in market share, 1 percentage point.
The top five brands in May
Fiat – 21.57%
Volkswagen – 17.39%
Chevrolet – 10.12%
Hyundai – 8.74%
Toyota – 7.32%
The figures are from Bright, a consulting firm that sees the increase in direct sales as one of the main factors for growth in May, which had 21 working days compared to 20 days in April.
Direct sales between automakers and end customers, totaling 106,600 units, accounted for exactly 50.1% of all vehicles sold last month. In the same period in 2024, this segment accounted for only 42.5% of registrations. Last April, it accounted for 47.5%.
“The movement reinforces the strength of operations with fleet owners, rental companies, and businesses, which continue to gain share in the total mix,” the consulting firm notes.
Licenses for electric vehicles grew substantially compared to a year ago. 21,400 units were sold, 59% more than in May 2024 and 10% of the total market.
Battery-powered models accounted for just over 7,500 registrations, with almost 2,600 of those being BYD Dolphin Minis alone.
Plug-in hybrids exceeded 6,400 units, and mild hybrids reached 5,300 — with the Fiat Fastback accounting for half of those, at 2,600. Closed hybrids accumulated only 2,300 registrations.
Bright also points out that Chinese brands combined accounted for 8.8% of last month’s sales, up from 7.9% in April.
By George Guimarães
