© Archyde.com / LUISA GONZALEZ
File photo. New vehicles are exhibited for sale in a store in Bogotá
BOGOTÁ, Jan 3 (Archyde.com) – New vehicle sales in Colombia rose 32.8% year-on-year in 2021 to 250,272 units amid the recovery in domestic consumption from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the main unions in the sector.
In 2020, 188,391 new vehicles were sold in the South American country of 50 million people, the lowest number in more than a decade due to falling demand amid restrictions due to the coronavirus.
In December alone, 25,312 new vehicles were sold, a decrease of 5.7% compared to the same month in 2020.
The automotive sector continues to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and an escalation of anti-government protests that began at the end of April 2021, which included the blocking of roads, looting of shops, acts of vandalism and clashes between some protesters and police.
The Colombian vehicle and motorcycle sector, which has 12 production plants and more than 16,000 points of service, marketing and workshops, represents 6.6% of the industrial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and generates some 25,000 direct jobs, while that nearly 100,000 workers are linked in its service chain.
© Archyde.com / LUISA GONZALEZ
File photo. New vehicles are exhibited for sale in a store in Bogotá
Colombia’s economy contracted 6.8% in 2020 and by 2021 the Government expects an expansion of 9.7%.
For this year the automotive sector forecasts a sale of 265,000 new vehicles.
(Report by Luis Jaime Acosta, edited by Gabriela Donoso)
