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15 AutoData | April 2018 João Batista Ciaco, director of commu- nication, marketing and sustainability at FCA Latin America, confirms that “young people are taking a driver’s license later.” He points out, however, that the new ge- neration “has a different interest in the car, not a disinterest”. Mauricio Greco, direc- tor of marketing at Ford, understands that “the dream of having a car is still strong”. Ciaco agrees and adds that the car maintains the status of desire object, but “now disputes with other items, such as the mobile.” Carlos Alberto Oliveira Andrade, president of CAOA Montadora, sees the theme in a similar way. “The car is not just a means of transportation. It gives the in- dividuality of each, the freedom to leave, to travel. Children grow up, theywant fre- edom, and they like to have a car, to drive. This is really starting to change a little, but at least for me, it will still be this way for a long time.” Ciaco sums up the current circums- tance: “Some time ago every person’s car said a lot about that person, the identity, personality. This continues, but now, and likewise, not having a car also says some- thing about the person, the identity and personality.” The executive, however, understands that “the option of not having a car does not mean that one hates cars. She just has another relationship with them.” In this framework of other relationships, naturally, different options come from the traditional ones, the most linked to ow- nership. And it opens the way to those that involve pure and simple use, such as Uber and similar, sharing, hitchhiking, outsourced fleets, rent for longer periods and somany others, including applications of all kinds. Greco, of Ford, sees with caution the advance power of these news. “For Brazil, these trends still need to be solidified. The Brazilian is a little conservative.” He recalls, for example, leasing, financing optionwith smaller installments but is not always well accepted only because the vehicle belon- gs to the bank, not to the buyer. Of course there is no exact formula, he adds - after all Brazil is a huge country with extreme variations in several aspects. “Initially this trend of detachment, from exchange of ownership through use, must find a larger audience in the big cities and in the upper range of the social pyramid.” Caoa is straightforward: “This sharing thing is still new, no one knows yet whe- ther it will take revenge or not. Anyway, the car, as a vehicle, continues. Thewhole question revolves around independence. Uber is interesting in São Paulo, for exam- ple, it solves some issues, such as parking difficulty. But what if the person wants to travel? In the background this personwants the independence of the car.” The car seems to have a guaranteed future in Brazil, and certainly well beyond 2025, in all age groups, for two fundamen- tal reasons: the first is the extreme diffi- culty at any angle that involves collective transportation of some kind, which does not even follow the real need of the po- pulation - something that has happened for several decades and without any in- dication of change or improvement. And the second is the continental proportions of the national territory, an important and very different aspect of what happens, for example, in Europe: there will always be a need for a more distant or personalized displacement, since there are people here everywhere, after all , either in the capitals or in the Interior. GADGETS ON WHEELS Obviously the automotive industry as a whole, and also in Brazil, not onlywatches with the future trends of consumptionwith extreme attention as it does what is ne- cessary to adapt. In thisway, and remembering the quote from Ciaco, of FCA, about the division of nuvolanevicata/Shutterstock.com