Escape from sanctions – Newspaper Kommersant No. 216 (7417) of 11/22/2022

Despite the lack of official deliveries of luxury and premium brands to the Russian Federation, some dealers have not refused to open car dealerships for them. Parallel imports, which are most profitable for expensive cars, have become a channel for replenishing warehouses. Analysts note that in conditions of import through non-official channels, it is still important for customers to buy cars through a dealer due to the availability of service capabilities and predictability.

The official dealer of Lamborghini Avtodom opened a mono-brand salon of the brand in Moscow City, although the supply of new cars of the brand to the country was suspended in the spring. The salon is replenished with cars for parallel imports. In fact, these are new cars with low mileage, but not purchased from an official importer.

The head of Avtodom, Andrei Olkhovsky, explains that the project was launched back in 2020, but “its implementation was delayed.” At the same time, according to him, the volume of offers is now much higher than in 2021: “Despite lower demand, we can offer almost the entire range of Lamborghini cars. The difference from the usual situation is that our customers cannot order a car with their personal options and must focus on what is available in the showrooms.”

Other large dealers interviewed by Kommersant refrained from such openings. Yulia Ovchinnikova, development director of the Klyuchavto auto holding, explains this decision by “analyzing the situation in the car market.” However, she continues, the economics of such discoveries can be “if these are not single deliveries to order, but large-scale batches.” Klyuchavto now has 4,000 cars delivered through parallel imports to a legal entity, among brands including Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Land Rover. At the same time, not premium models are popular, but Toyota RAV4, Toyota Camry and Toyota Avalon.

Avilon also imports cars of the mass and premium segments through parallel imports. Among the models imported under the parallel import procedure are Range Rover, Land Rover Defender, Range Rover Sport, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, Volkswagen Bora, Volkswagen ID6 electric cars, Audi Q5 E-tron, says the Deputy General Director for Sales of New Cars of AG Avilon » Alexey Starikov. A certain demand for luxury cars remains, he continues, “which means that their deliveries under the parallel import procedure are a matter of time.”

Andrey Olkhovsky says that parallel imports are more efficient in the premium and luxury segments, since the margin of transactions is much higher than in the mass segment: “The cost of transporting one car is approximately the same, but the sale price is higher.” He also adds that “boutique brand cars cannot be sold as a regular car”: “A customer who purchases such a car must be sure that he will operate it, and not repair it. Such transactions can be carried out exclusively through official dealers for the guarantees of all parties.

In addition, Yulia Ovchinnikova notes that the opening and reorientation of points of sale for the supply of premium segment and luxury brands within the framework of parallel imports allows maintaining the quality of customer service and providing post-warranty support, which includes, among other things, the availability of certified equipment and software for diagnostics and automatic reading vehicle information.

Sergey Udalov from Avtostat notes that in the context of parallel imports, especially in the luxury and premium segments, the clear status of a car seller, the ability to be responsible for the service, as well as his experience in repairs and diagnostics of a particular brand are important to customers. But in general, he adds, batches of cars that do not belong to the premium segment are also massively imported into legal entities.

Olga Nikitina