“Definitely, things are cooking in LatAm”

By Frank Jacobs - May 16, 2023

Twitter @DanielBlandBiz GlobalFleet.com - FleetLatAm.com

If you want to learn anything about the Latin American fleet market, there was no better place for you to be than in the Fleet LatAm Expert Meeting Monday afternoon in Cascais, on the first day of the Global Fleet Conference 2023. Even though, as Fleet LatAm Advisory Board chairman Pascal Serres admitted, some of the figures he presented were a bit wobbly. 

Exact figures on fleet sizes and market shares in LatAm are hard to come by, which is why Mr. Serres’ effort at collating them was all the more valuable – lots of smartphones went up in the audience to take pictures of his PowerPoint slides. 

Strong in telematics

Did you know that:

• 4.9 million cars were registered in LatAm last year, versus 5.9 million in 2019. Brazil (2.1 million) and Mexico (1.1 million) make up the bulk of the market. 
• Corporate sales amounted to 1.4 million, of which daily rentals were 600,000. There were an estimated 400,000 new full service leasing contracts. 
• Brazil represents 50% of the total LatAm leased cars market, Mexico 34%. Chili is 9% and Colombia 4%. “There is virtually no leasing in Argentina, due to that country’s financial problems”, said Mr Serres. 

Mr Serres went on to outline the size of players, markets and trends. The second-hand market is still very fragmented in LatAm, but the region is particularly strong in telematics. “I know some of the fleets of companies present in the room are 100% connected”, he said. 

Local players

Given the particular and diverse nature of fleet management in LatAm, how do you roll out the right strategy? Moderator Steven Schoefs wanted to know, Paula Diniz Oliveira (Global Fleet Manager, Zoetis) and David Trujillo (Regional Fleet Manager Procurement, MSD) provided their views. 

Do you get your supply from local heroes, or big players? “We give flexibility to the markets,” said Ms Diniz Oliveira. “What counts is that the driver gets the services they need to do their job. Local players are sometimes better – giving more information, and more competitive prices.” See more here...