On Monday, Kelley Blue Book announced its first in a series of international launches with the introduction of Kelley Blue Book in Portugal at KBB.PT. According to a 2017 TGI Grupo Marktest study, price was the No. 1 important factor for both new- and used-vehicle shoppers in Portugal, with 74 percent of new-model buyers and 72 percent of used-unit purchasers indicating the importance of price in their decision.

Kelley Blue Book is the fourth Cox Automotive brand to join the Portugal market, with Manheim Portugal, which recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary, along with Incadea and Auto SAPO Venda Já.

“Kelley Blue Book’s expansion to Portugal is a testament to our 90-year history of providing car buyers and sellers with trusted vehicle values, fair pricing and automotive expertise to make well-informed purchasing decisions,” said Dan Ingle, vice president of international business development for Cox Automotive Media Solutions Group, which includes Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader.

“We’re confident KBB.PT will quickly become the market standard for vehicle pricing and valuations in Portugal, offering the industry and consumers effective transparency within the car market,” Ingle continued.

Built in partnership with Janela Digital, a leading supplier of technological solutions, Cox Automotive said KBB.PT is a completely re-envisioned web-based consumer and valuation platform. KBB.PT was created in collaboration with company partners in Portugal, who worked alongside its specialists in the United States, including data scientists, web designers and other in-house experts.

Kelley Blue Book insisted it will seek to replicate the consumer and valuations platform as it expands into other markets.

Visitors to KBB.PT will have free access to trade-in, private party, used-vehicle retail and new-model retail pricing. Specifically for the automotive industry, Kelley Blue Book Auction Values also will be available in an industry-facing software product coming to the Portugal market.   

“Intended to address the need for a more sophisticated vehicle valuation solution in most markets around the globe — both from an industry and consumer perspective — we built a new multi-currency, multi-language vehicle valuation engine that can be adapted to other international markets,” said Nuno Castel Branco, business development director at Cox Automotive, parent company of Kelley Blue Book.

“We expect the development and architecture behind the new Kelley Blue Book Portugal platform to increase operational efficiencies when we launch in other territories,” Branco added.

For KBB.PT, Kelley Blue Book also partnered with Auto SAPO, a leading provider of automotive classified listings in Portugal, which will help provide classified pricing data in Portugal, one of a variety of data inputs used to fuel the valuations engine.

“For SAPO it is of utmost importance to partner with Kelley Blue Book, a leader in vehicle valuation and automotive research,” said Filipa Martins, director of SAPO. “SAPO’s partnership with Kelley Blue Book strengthens the offerings to the automotive industry in Portugal.

“Kelley Blue Book provides vehicle values, a needed service in the market, to help bring consumers and dealers closer together,” Martins continued. “Kelley Blue Book also provides vehicle research, news and advice, and information about auto shows through our dedicated area of the SAPO website, Motores, where users can navigate through the articles, as well as offers to sell or purchase a vehicle."