Brazil’s Online Automotive Market:On the Brink of a Revolution?
South America’s largest online automotive market has long stood apart from its global peers. Brazil combines an unusually fragmented competitive landscape, a historically powerful role for banks, and a large presence of horizontal platforms and private-seller inventory. Banco Itaú’s June 2026 sale of iCarros, historically the country’s number-two automotive marketplace, and the subsequent withdrawal of its professional classifieds business suggest that the market may
now be entering a new phase.
South America’s largest online automotive market
Brazil’s scale makes it the natural centre of gravity for Latin American automotive commerce. Its roughly 214 million inhabitants are spread across 8.5 million square kilometres, while its US$2.19 trillion GDP makes it Latin America’s largest economy and one of the world’s ten largest. This combination of population, purchasing power and geography has created both strong demand for individual mobility and a substantial automotive market.
Key Metrics | KPI |
Used Vehicles sales (1) | 18.5m |
Cars advertised online(2) | 1.3m |
Local press estimated annual marketplace revenue | ~ $250m |
Source 1: FENAUTO, 2025 incl. motos & Heavy Trucks Source 2: Joreca, August 2026 | |
Brazil also developed one of the emerging world’s largest automotive manufacturing industries from the 1950s onwards. The Real Plan of the mid-1990s stabilised inflation and enabled a much deeper consumer-credit market, with banks subsequently building one of Latin America’s most sophisticated automotive-finance ecosystems. Vehicle loans have traditionally been structured around affordable monthly instalments, often over materially longer maturities than in North America or Western Europe, while nominal interest rates remain high by developed-market standards. The result is visible in transaction volumes: FENAUTO reports that 18.5 million used vehicles changed hands in 2025 (including motorcycles and heavy trucks), a record and 17.3% above 2024.
That scale has translated directly into digital supply. Joreca’s monitoring as of 1 September 2026 identifies more than 26,000 professional automotive advertisers and over 1.3 million unique vehicles for sale online, including more than 350,000 from private sellers. Local press estimates annual automotive marketplace revenues around US$250 million. Brazil is therefore already a significant global classifieds market, yet monetisation remains four to eight times below mature benchmarks such as the US, UK and Australia.
The direction of travel may matter even more than the absolute gap. Joreca estimates that Brazil’s automotive marketplace revenues have grown by an average 22% annually in constant currency since 2022, compared with approximately 7% in the US or 9% in the UK and Australia. If sustained, this differential should progressively narrow the monetisation gap even without dramatic growth in vehicle transactions.
Are banks beginning to step back?
Given their weight in Brazil’s automotive ecosystem, banks moved early into online car sales. In 2008, Santander, one of the country’s largest banks, acquired market leader Webmotors to deepen dealer relationships, generate automotive financing and upsell professional customers through online advertising packages. Itaú subsequently developed iCarros, while Banco BV backed more recently NaPista, in 2024.
A pioneer worth remembering |
Sylvio de Barros (1967–2024) was one of the entrepreneurs who shaped Brazil’s digital automotive sector. After Webmotors, he became an investor in iCarros and continued to build technology businesses. His combination of automotive knowledge and internet entrepreneurship helped define the market long before online car shopping became mainstream. |
That bank-led marketplace model is now starting to unwind. The first turning point came at Webmotors. In April 2023, Australian pure-play marketplace Carsales (CAR Group) increased its ownership to 70%, leaving Santander with 30%. The symbolism matters: Santander remains a significant shareholder, but strategic and operational control of Brazil’s leading specialist marketplace has shifted from a bank to a global marketplace operator.
Less competition but still many players involved
iCarros’ withdrawal from professional classifieds represents the first tangible reduction in national competitive intensity. Brazil is large, but its revenue pool remains below those of several mature Western markets and has historically been divided among an unusually high number of credible competitors.
Beyond Webmotors, iCarros and NaPista, Mobiauto has emerged as a serious specialist challenger since its 2019 launch by former iCarros executives Sant Clair de Castro Júnior and Guilherme Braga.
Competition is further intensified by horizontal marketplaces. OLX is particularly powerful in private-to-private automotive listings while retaining substantial professional inventory. Its Brazilian operation is owned equally by Prosus and Adevinta. Mercado Livre is another major challenger: having evolved from an eBay-style marketplace into Latin America’s broader equivalent of Amazon, it displays close to 400,000 vehicle-category results in Brazil, combining private sellers with substantial dealer and official-store inventory.
Brazil also retains important regional ecosystems, including SeminovosBH in Minas Gerais, Socarrao in Paraná, and platforms such as UsadosBR and CarroPiracicaba in the South-West of the country. This long tail makes consolidation structurally more difficult.
A new race for second place… or even first?
The principal prize from consolidation is monetisation. Joreca benchmarking suggests that average retailer monetisation in Brazil remains four to eight times below mature US and Western European marketplace levels. Webmotors is the clear exception. CAR Group does not disclose standalone Webmotors data, but its Latam segment (whose performance is largely driven by Webmotors) generated in FY2026 a 38% pro-forma EBITDA margin.
CAR Group’s influence is also increasingly visible in Webmotors’ operating model. The platform has expanded its lead in audience and paying dealers while shifting its proposition from inventory visibility towards measurable performance. A model that increasingly resembles the monetisation playbook of mature pure-play marketplaces.
The question is whether that advantage can be sustained. Market-monitoring data suggest that Mobiauto, OLX and NaPista form a relatively tight second tier in traffic and professional advertisers. Before withdrawing from professional classifieds, iCarros occupied a similar position. Its exit potentially creates the conditions for a stronger number-two platform rather than simply transferring incremental share to Webmotors.
Brazil may therefore be entering a new stage: fewer bank-controlled platforms, fewer credible national competitors and greater pressure to monetise. Webmotors enters this phase from a position of strength. Yet the economics that make the leader increasingly attractive also create stronger incentives for the rest of the market to pursue scale through investment, partnerships or M&A. Against this backdrop, speculation around OLX’s medium-term ownership and questions over Mobiauto’s future financing and scaling become particularly relevant. The next battle may be less about building another marketplace than about who can assemble a credible second pole, and whether that challenger can ultimately turn a race for second place into a race for first
Disclaimer: This article was written using Joreca’s data, public information, and expert opinion. Under no circumstances does this article constitute a solicitation, offer, opinion, approval nor recommendation by Joreca, to buy or sell any company share, nor does it provide legal, tax, accounting or investment advice, nor services regarding the profitability or suitability of any security or investment.
