It has been said that companies are responsible for market growth. But what does the decomposition of car sales show? You have to look at all sides of the prism.
For almost a year in a row, more cars have been sold. As they say in trade jargon, the market is growing. So since the beginning of this year, even more.
As there is a perception that the individual is not buying, it has been said that companies are responsible for these acquisitions. And from there, several numbers appear.
Every day someone says something like: “if it weren't for the companies, I don't know what the market would be like”. But what are sales to companies? All that aren't bills passed on tax numbers starting with 21? Renting and leasing sales? The rent-a-car? So what about branded retail demonstration vehicles?
The truth is that there is no reliable data on sales to companies, as there is in other countries. Only by extrapolation or by a brand-by-brand compilation work is it possible to know something. But it's worth looking at the decomposition of the market.
As for billing by tax number, it is best to forget. The data exists – through the ownership registration – but is not made public.
Renting and leasing are financing options traditionally used by companies, which give an idea of how the purchases in this channel are going. Each of them is worth close to 16% of the total car market, so we have here a third of car sales in Portugal.
Rent-a-car is a very specific channel. Firstly, it is seasonal, with shopping concentrated in Easter, Summer and Christmas. Also, part of their own business model makes released cars not sales. They are leases and after the lease, they enter the used car market. And, finally, the recipients of the use of rent-a-car cars are private individuals. Hence, even importers do not always rely on RaC (this is the acronym) as sales to companies.
There is also the importers' own park, which includes demonstration vehicles, already registered, but not yet sold to the final customer, be it companies or individuals.
So far, we have a third of the market destined for companies. The numbers I usually hear are always moving towards 60% and I've heard about 70 percent. In a compilation I made directly to brands, the end of 2013 was 49 percent sales to companies, on average across all brands. There are some that sell a lot, there are others that sell less, but this is the number.
Where does the rest come from? Just think of the country's business fabric and some specific circumstances of large fleet owners. Small and micro-enterprises still buy a lot on credit and through their own financing. And even some large fleet owners, for reasons that are different from each other, but always well studied, prefer to buy straight away.
This is how these numbers appear. Companies are worth about half the market. There is nothing to indicate that the proportion has changed significantly. So companies are buying. But the private ones too. Private individuals suffered from the crisis. And companies too.