Fewer Foreign Cars Are Being Bought In Russia

Sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles of foreign brands (including those produced in Russia) in the first quarter of 2019 decreased by 1.5%. In just 3 months, 290 thousand new foreign cars were sold.

The fall in demand for models of foreign brands is associated with an increase in interest in domestic cars. The brands LAD and UAZ in the first quarter of 2019 showed an average growth of 4%, which led to a decrease in the share of foreign cars by 0.9 percent - to 74.1%.

In March, the demand for LAD cars grew even more noticeably - by 10%, including due to the high popularity of the state program "First / Family Car" - almost the entire model range of the company falls under its influence. Despite the fact that the program also applies to foreign cars, the choice is limited to the upper price - 1,000,000 rubles. The program will last until the end of 2019, but it will probably end earlier, when the 3 billion rubles allocated by the state ends. After the completion of the program, the sale of cars of foreign brands may be able to regain the lost positions.

• In total, 391,650 vehicles (-0.3%) were sold in Russia in the first quarter of 2019, of which 101,528 were cars of domestic brands (+ 3.3%).