Brazil this year overtook Germany as the fourth-biggest car market in the world - and foreign investors see huge potential as the Latin American giant becomes increasingly prosperous. At the end of 2010, a total of 3.45 million vehicles are forecast to have been sold in Brazil, nearly 10 percent more than last year, according to the national automobile manufacturers' association Anfavea.
That would position Brazil behind China, the United States and Japan in sales of cars and light trucks, and just ahead of Germany. "This in itself is already big attraction for a growing market, with a low density of vehicles per inhabitant," Anfavea president Cledorvino Belini told AFP. He explained that Brazil, with a population of 192 million, had approximately one vehicle per seven residents, leaving plenty of room for growth.