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72 October 2018 | AutoData PERSPECTIVES 2019 » TRUCKS AND BUSES Bernardo do Campo, SP, is destined abro- ad. Christopher Podgorski, CEO, believes that the level will continue in 2019. Volvo follows the same line but has more room to grow: half of its production is exported. With the Argentine crisis, the solution to export more next year, according to com- panies, will be to knock on other doors. In the case of the Argentine market (main destination of vehicles produced in Brazil, and where Iveco, Scania and Mer- cedes-Benz maintain factories) the fear is a little more intense than the Brazilian elections. For Ricardo Barion, director of sales for Latin America, “it became more expensive to produce vehicles there. If the Argentine market stops decreasing, it account for 28 thousand trucks in 2018”. As for buses, the need for fleet renewal, new bids and regulations are factors that should determine the maintenance of the sales resumption in 2019, which this year keep at the two-digit increase: until Au- gust, the volume sold is of 16.7% over the same period last year, while production increases 44%. According to GilbertoVardânega, com- mercial director of Volvo Bus in Brazil, 2018 is watching a hiring wave in the industry that helps to drive sales: “With the increase in hirings, the charter service has grown, to transport employees. This helped the market”. The charters are also pointed out by Iveco, which operates in the field with its portfolio of minibuses, as a niche with interesting opportunities next year. In the case of city buses, the end of the electoral process may resume the conver- sations about tariffs and bids in Brazilian municipalities - in theory, there is room for that, since the election for the City Halls representatives will take place only two years from now. THE R$ 0,20 AGAIN? In buses, 2019 should bring talks about recomposition of urban transport tariffs: municipal election is only two years from now. Disclousure/MBB Disclousure/Ford