Car Sales In Russia Fell 3.5 Times

According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB), in April 2020, sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in the Russian market fell by 72.4 percent. A total of 38,922 vehicles were sold, which is 102,089 units less than a year ago. In total, 415.1 thousand cars have been sold since January (minus 19.1%).

“After an exceptionally high level of sales in March 2020, in April due to the situation around COVID-19, dealerships were forced to suspend or significantly restrict their activities. Compared to the same month last year, sales fell 72.4%. The Russian auto industry is facing the largest monthly fall in retail sales in the history of statistics compiled by the AEB. Black April 2020 dealt a severe blow to dealer liquidity, and in the medium term, even to their sustainability. In order to stay close to customers in the new reality, we all need to try new creative formats of communication and sales. Despite the fact that dealers are preparing for the restart, I do not expect a significant increase in sales in May,”- summed up the month Thomas Stärzel, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee in Russia.

About brands

The Lad brand retained its leading position even in the context of the pandemic, but sales fell to 9.4 thousand units, which is about the same number of LadVesta family cars sold at “normal” times. The second line went to Kia, while Hyundai dropped from the usual third place in the rating to the seventh. Nevertheless, following the results of four months, this brand held the third position.

The top 15 best-selling passenger car brands in Russia sank in the same way as the market as a whole - by 71%. Sales of only two popular brands decreased slower than the market: Skod and Nissan.

A couple of bestselling Chinese brands, Haval and Geely, saw the smallest drop in April. This helped them to enter the top 15. Demand for the top five most popular "Chinese" faded by only 43.6% - mainly due to weak sales a year ago.

The fall in demand by less than half was also recorded for FAW and commercial vehicles Ford and Iveco. The sales of premium Audi and Genesis were noted with quite good results. There is no data on the BMW and Mercedes-Benz concerns in the monthly reports: these brands have switched to publishing statistics once a quarter.

About brands

The three most popular models remain the same: LadGranta, Vest and KiRio. In April, sales of Vesta suffered less than others - by 71.2%. According to the results of four months, the smallest drop for Rio: minus 20%. Since the beginning of the year, demand for Granta and Vesta has decreased by 20.7% and 21.9%, respectively.

But Hyundai Cret and Solaris turned out to be unusually low in the rating. And if Crete's chances of returning to the usual 4-5th position are quite high, then Solaris cannot boast of good demand for a long time. In April, it was left with an anti-record: minus 88.4%. At the end of the year, the sedan is unlikely to get into the top 5 and, quite possibly, even give way to the current sixth position.

Two novelties of the Russian market - KiSeltos and SkodKaroq - were noted as a good result: already in the first months of sales, competing crossovers were in the top 25.

Volkswagen Tiguan was sold better than competitors in April: only minus 53%. This allowed the model to remain in the top five bestsellers and almost maintain sales in January-April at last year's level. SkodKodiaq (2 percent), Octavi (3.4 percent), Nissan X-Trail (7.7 percent) also boasted a slight fall over the four months.

ToyotRAV4 has a record growth in four months: plus 50%. The model owes this result to strong performance in January-March, when every month the crossover was bought one and a half to two times more actively than a year earlier. Nissan Qashqai (5 percent) and MazdCX-5 (5.7 percent) also showed positive gains in the first months of the year.

The April top 25 sales include KiSeltos, MazdCX-5, SkodKaroq and ToyotLand Cruiser Prado. They dropped out of the rankings Hyundai Tucson, KiCeed Optim and Soul. Newcomers from January to April are MazdCX-5 and SkodKodiaq, outsiders are the former Chevrolet Niv and KiOptima.