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14 May 2018 | AutoData MARKET » TRENDS V olkswagen has recently received a battalion of guests in its factory in São José dos Pinhais, PR - au- thorities, suppliers, press, etc. - to announce the production of its first national sports utility: T-Cross, assembled in the MQB platform, the same of Polo andVirtus produced in São Bernardo do Campo, in ABCD Paulista. The SUVs, the most common way of sports utility generated by the acronym in English for Sport UtilityVehicle, dominate the list of the most recent and upcoming major national launches. The euphoria is justified by the performance of this seg- ment in resellers: according to Fenabrave from January to March it responded by 109.8 thousand units sold, a 34.4% increase over the same period of 2017. This result means that this year one in four cars sold in the Brazilian market is an SUV. It is already the second largest segment in the country, surpassed only by the compact hatches. It left even the sedans behind, which formerly attracted the attention of the Brazilian consumer. Carlos Alberto Oliveira Andrade, the Caoa, attests it. He, who now also repre- sents Chery in the country, was precisely one of the people responsible for populari- zing the segment with the Hyundai Tucson and then the Ix35: “Brazil is SUV, for sure. The sedans are losing market share and the SUV is the national preference. There is still room for By André Barros BRAZIL, THE COUNTRY OF SUVS It seems incredible but soon the SUVs are expected to represent the best-selling segment on the Brazilian market. And believe: there is very little left for this to happen. Disclousure/Nissan