Car dealerships in Cuba sold 50 cars and 4 bikes in the first six months of 2014 under a new law aimed at relaxing auto purchase limits.
Since Cuba relaxed its car purchase policies under President Raul Castro's reforms, 11 dealers in the country sold 50 cars and 4 bikes in the first six months of 2014. The sales report comes after a new law was proposed in January this year to allow Cubans to buy new cars for the first time in almost half a century.
The report on car sales in the country's 11 national dealerships was released by the pro-government website Cubadebate, Monday. The low figure for the sales of new car is attributed to the high mark up of more than 400 percent. Most of the cars sold in the island country were used models. For instance, a new Kia Rio, which is about $13,000 in the United States, costs $42,000 in Cuba. Even though it sounds affordable, the country's economy does not allow people to make the tough choice. According to Fox News, the average state salary in Cuba is $20 per month, which means it would require Cubans to work for about a century to buy a car. A Peugeot 508 family sedan, which is about $53,000 in the United Kingdom, costs a whopping $262,000 in Cuba, almost the price of a McLaren 650 S in America.
The government reformers defend the high pricing strategy as a part of a plan to improve the country's transportation system. The government intends to invest 75 percent of the car sales revenue in building public transport infrastructure.
Considering these facts, Cubans buying about 50 cars in the country is still quite significant. According to the Cubadebate report, the average transaction cost of each car was less than $25,000. Total sales across the country's 11 national dealerships reached $1.28 million during the course of the first six months.
