Luxury cars find their way to Russia – Kommersant FM

The luxury car market is reviving in Russia: since the beginning of the year, 43 Lamborghinis, 30 Bentleys, 32 Rolls-Royces and nine Ferrari Roma cars have been sold in the country, Avtodom Group of Companies calculated. At the same time, their value, as analysts note, has at least doubled compared to 2021. Should we expect further sales growth? And how do luxury cars get to Russia? Details from Daria Fomenko.

Official deliveries, as well as warranty service for luxury cars, were stopped after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. Cars enter the country only through parallel imports.

Sales in Russia have fallen significantly, but there are still customers in the segment, said Sergei Mordovin, director of the Lamborghini brand at Avtodom Group of Companies:

“Last year, almost no people bought Aston Martin. About 20 Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce cars were sold – 40 cars each.

This year, everyone felt a little better, because they learned how to make payments, transport cars, and the market even grew a little.

But in terms of sales, we have probably fallen three times by 2021. Meanwhile, the numbers are frightening, because the year before last the most expensive car – a Rolls-Royce – could be bought for 35-40 million rubles, and this year it will cost 80 million rubles. But people are buying.”

The best-selling Lamborghini remains the Urus. Among Bentleys, the most popular is the Bentayga, the price of both is about 50 million rubles. The most expensive one sold last year was the Lamborghini Sian, which cost RUB 300 million.

Prices for luxury cars have at least doubled over the past year and a half, which is putting off some potential buyers, said Vladimir Popov, president of the Favorit Motors group of companies:

“Today it’s not even fashionable to drive some kind of superlux, because times in the country are not exactly the right time to so openly show off your incredible wealth.

The cost of cars changes relative to the exchange rate, that is, it goes into near space. At the same time, if someone wants to buy a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, this can be done.

The cars are being transported from the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan. This is a 100% private import, so warranty, service and any other support are already a thing of the past.”

Another problem is the reluctance of brands to sell cars in Russia. It is often very difficult to put them even unofficially.

Concerns are trying to track the end buyer, and given the relatively small number of copies, they are quite successful, notes the founder of the Avtodustator company, Ararat Mardoyan:

“We delivered luxury cars, no more than three during the year. At the same time, manufacturers are keeping an eye on them. Therefore, activating GPS on the territory of the Russian Federation and so on carries with it certain risks.

However, delivery often costs more than the cars themselves. For example, in our case, we used air transportation for luxury cars.”

All this stimulates the market for used luxury cars. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, twice as many cars were sold in this segment as a year earlier. This data was provided by the Avito Auto platform. The number of offers is growing at about the same rate.

But the cost, when compared with the primary market, shows less volatility: on average, used cars have risen in price by 30-40% over the year.

---

Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.