The United Group of Automobile Importers (GUIA), an organization representing the automotive industry in Puerto Rico, today presented new car sales results for January 2021.
The month ended with a total of 10,085 units sold in Puerto Rico, as opposed to the same month sales of 6,653, which represents an increase of 51.6% compared to the previous year. One of the segments that had a significant impact for the month was the minivan segment up 99.1%, followed by the van segment up 85% and the sedan segment up 81.1% from previous year.
“January’s growth is unusual in a mature market like ours, but the reality is that it’s mainly responding to the impact of the January 2020 earthquakes that impacted sales. As part of that growth in January, we saw also an increase in rental housing deliveries. vehicles of more than 205% as units that could not be delivered in December due to production capacity at the factories were delivered in January. We had not had such a January in over 15 years, “said Ricardo M. García, President of GUIA.
As he explained, there is rising demand driven by federal funds and sales of 104,000 units are forecast this year, up from 95,000 in 2020.
With the new United States government, it is expected that the additional funds allocated to the island will begin to arrive this year and help boost the economy. And with a significant increase in vaccination, sectors are back to normal. To open up, we must begin to meet the expectations of everyone, both the public and private sectors, ”said Garcia.