Car dealers reported that new foreign cars in Russia remained for a month of sales

There are no more than 20,000 – 30,000 new foreign cars left in Russia, enough for just a month of sales. About it reported Izvestia with reference to market participants.

“Warehouses of auto centers are seriously depleted, there are very few cars left: about five copies of certain brands, about ten. The average car center used to sell about 30 cars a month. It turns out that these stocks cannot provide even monthly sales. <...> In 2023, most centers may be left with empty warehouses,” said Alexei Podshchekoldin, Vice President of the Association of Russian Automobile Dealers (ROAD).

According to the estimates of the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Behind the wheel” and auto expert Maxim Kadakov, there are no more than 20,000 – 30,000 foreign cars left in all car dealerships. Each dealer has less than a thousand new cars left, Podshchekoldin believes.

He emphasized that car dealers had practically no mid-range models left, including Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Renault, Volkswagen. According to him, 45 car brands have left the Russian market since the beginning of the year. In total, only 14 manufacturers remained in Russia, 3 of which are domestic and 11 are Chinese.

Podshchekoldin specified that the deficit this year amounted to 1.1 million cars. “It is unlikely that it will be covered next year,” he said. According to the vice-president of the National Automobile Union (NAU), Jan Haytseera, it is not profitable to import cars of the middle price category now, since the price rises by 10% due to high duties and logistical difficulties.

According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB), in November sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) in Russia amounted to 46,403 units, which is 61.6% less than in November 2021. The sales leader remains domestic “AvtoVAZ”, which sold 21,726 Lada cars (-18% compared to November 2021). This is the maximum indicator of the automaker since the beginning of the year.