Japan may limit the export of used cars to Russia

The Japanese authorities are considering introducing a ban on the export to Russia of most of the range of used cars that still continued to be supplied to the Russian market. We are talking about repeating the latest EU restrictions – the sanctions will affect all passenger cars, including electric vehicles and hybrids, with the exception of those equipped with an engine of up to 1.9 liters. The latter in January-May accounted for at least 26.3% of deliveries to the Russian Federation. Analysts point to the popularity of cars from Japan in the Far East and Siberia, but believe that the markets of these regions will adapt to new restrictions, as happened with the Russian market for new cars.

Japan wants to ban the export of cars with an engine capacity of more than 1.9 liters, as well as electric vehicles and hybrids, to the Russian Federation, according to the local Yomiuri portal. Since April 2022, it was no longer possible to export cars from Japan to the Russian Federation for more than ¥6 million, which is equivalent to €44.1 thousand, which at that time approximately corresponded to EU restrictions that applied to cars over €50 thousand (see “Kommersant” dated March 30, 2022). According to Yomiuri, new changes to export restrictions may be adopted in July, and will come into force from August.

Now the initiative of the Japanese authorities once again repeats the latest changes in European sanctions. As part of the 11th package, introduced by the EU authorities at the end of June, cars were excluded from a separate list of luxury items that were prohibited from importing them into the Russian Federation. Now their export is completely prohibited, including used ones, but a clause has been introduced in a number of customs codes, according to which the ban will only affect cars with an engine of 1.9 liters or more.

It follows from Japanese customs statistics that in January-May 2023, 91.7 thousand cars worth ¥110 billion (€713.1 million) were exported to the Russian Federation, almost all of them are used. A significant share of this volume – almost 24.1 thousand cars, or 26.3% – accounted for used cars with engines from 1 liter to 1.5 liter. Another 18.4 thousand, or 18.1% – with an engine from 1.5 liters to 3 liters. The largest share (24.6 thousand units, or 26.9%) was accounted for by deliveries under the customs code related to non-plug-in hybrids – vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines with spark ignition and electric motors as drives.

Dmitry Babansky from SBS Consulting notes that we are talking about hybrids of previous generations, such as Toyota Prius, popular in the Far East and Siberia. In his opinion, the popularity of such cars and electric vehicles is associated with their price, cost of ownership and the interest of the inhabitants of the Far East in trends that have already gained popularity in Japan. In the event of restrictions on their supply, buyers can switch to internal combustion engines or cars from China.

The Far Eastern media wrote that used cars from Japan are sold at car markets, going there through dealers. Recall that from August 1, a disposal fee for individuals who sell a car earlier than 12 months after import, instead of 3.4 thousand rubles. will grow by an amount from several hundred thousand to 1.2 million rubles. And members of the dealer community have already noted that such growth will lead to the transition of the market into a gray zone (see Kommersant of July 5 and 8). At the same time, imports, at least now, are not facilitated by the weakening of the ruble, which, when self-imported in small batches or single cars, leads to their immediate rise in price.

Sergey Udalov from Avtostat notes that in the total import of new and used cars to the Russian Federation, cars with engines over 2 liters account for about 16% and 30%, respectively. At the same time, in used cars, the share of Japanese cars with a volume of 2 liters or more is about 5% of the total import volume. He believes that in the context of the ban on the supply of hybrids and electric cars, the markets of the Far East regions will reorient themselves to internal combustion engines with engines up to 1.9 liters or switch to brands from China, as is already happening in other Russian regions, where European stamps.

Olga Nikitina