The Russian Car Market In February Went To Minus

2023 Author: Natalie MacDonald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 13:59

According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB), in February 2020 sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in the Russian market decreased by 2.2%, before 119,073 cars (minus 2699 pieces). A year ago, against the backdrop of an increase in VAT up to 20% and car prices, the drop was even more significant: 3.6%.

“In February, sales were 2% lower than the same month last year, in line with market expectations. However, given that some brands have stopped publishing sales data on a monthly basis (worldwide, including Russia), the overall market picture is not complete at the moment. Next month, the AEB will publish its quarterly report, which is expected to reflect the cumulative sales results of all brands represented in Russia for the first 3 months of 2020,”commented Jörg Schreiber, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.

About brands

Lad's sales rate fell to the 2019 anti-record: in November, demand for the brand's cars fell by the same 7%. Then the reason was the completion of concessional lending programs, and now sales were significantly affected by the rise in prices for cars of 2020. When comparing the sales of Lad with the total sales of Lad and Chevrolet Niv in 2019, the dynamics becomes even worse: 26,134 vehicles in February (minus 8.8%) and 49,118 vehicles in two months (minus 4.7%).

Renault has the highest growth in the top 10, Toyota dealers have added a little weaker, although for the Japanese concern this is the second month in a row with double-digit growth. Skoda has an anti-record among the best-selling brands, moreover, this trend is likely to continue in the coming months: the company announced a reduction in production at the Russian plant due to a shortage of spare parts.

Without taking into account the sales of BMW (including Mini) and Mercedes-Benz (including Smart), which are summing up quarterly since 2020, the demand for premium brands has decreased to 4,905 vehicles (minus 4.3%). After an unsuccessful 2019, Lexus is growing for the second month in a row. Together with him, Audi also came out on top. In general, since the beginning of the year, sales of premium brands fell by 4.2%, to 8.3 thousand units.

Sales of the 10 most popular mass-market cars sank slightly weaker than the market: minus 1.6%, 103 thousand cars. Skoda also has the worst dynamics among them. For 2 months, almost 185 thousand cars were sold, only 0.2% less than in the same period last year.

The five best-selling Japanese brands have again increased: plus 2.8%, 20.7 thousand cars in February. The Toyota brand has made the largest contribution to the statistics. In addition, Mazda is being rehabilitated. Nissan and Mitsubishi, in turn, continue to fall and spoil the overall statistics. In total, in January and February, they sold 36.6 thousand cars, which is 3.4% more than a year ago.

The Chinese auto industry is still on the rise: 3202 cars were sold in January, the dynamics is 36.3%. Most of the market was occupied by Haval, Geely, Changan and Chery - they account for almost 90%. In 2 months, more than 6.2 thousand Chinese cars found their owners, which is 46% more than a year ago.

About model

Sales of the LadGrant family fell for the first time in almost two years: the last decrease was recorded in April 2018 - minus 11.5%. Then Granta was only third in the ranking of sales. But thanks to good sales in January this year (plus 11%, 8470 cars), the two-month figure for the bestseller is not so terrible: minus 1%, 18,029 cars. Together with Granta, only LadLargus sank in the top 10: minus 9.3%.

Although the flagship model of AvtoVAZ, Vest, kept from falling (plus 1.8%), KiRio yielded second place, whose sales rose by 17.8%. For Rio, this is the first growth since October and the best indicator in 14 months (December 2018 - plus 39.4%).

The strongest failure in February was in Hyundai Tucson (minus 26.5%), and the best growth for the second month in a row was in ToyotRAV4 (plus 102%). In addition, good demand was recorded for the Volkswagen Tiguan (19 percent) and Nissan Qashqai (26.1 percent).

SkodKodiaq, which is very popular on the Russian market, did not make it into the top 25 best-selling cars for the first time in 11 months. A little more than 1.3 thousand of them were sold in a month. Found itself on the verge of dropping out of the KiOptim rating (minus 9.3%). Rival ToyotCamry slipped more (minus 18.4%), but in absolute terms the sales result was noticeably better.

MazdCX-5 got into the top on February 25, 2020, and KiCeed, on the contrary, left. Only 11 models in the ranking have sold better over the past month than a year ago.

According to the results of two months, 13 models remained in positive territory. The best growth was shown by the new ToyotRav4 (plus 91.3%). The worst performance was shown by two models - SkodRapid and Hyundai Tucson: their sales fell by 20%.