The Russian car market fell by 59% in 2022 – Business – Kommersant

The car market of the Russian Federation in 2022 decreased by almost 59%, to 0.69 million cars. The Association of European Businesses (AEB) points to the shortage of cars on the market and says that in conditions of complex logistics and dynamic supplies, prices cannot go down. At the same time, in December, despite the absence of wide discounts, the market traditionally turned out to be almost 20,000 higher than the autumn months. In 2023, the AEB expects the market for new cars to grow by 12%, to 0.77 million cars.

Sales of passenger cars and LCVs in the Russian Federation in 2022 fell by 58.8%, to 687.4 thousand cars, calculated the Association of European Businesses. Recall, the Kommersant forecast suggested a 60% drop in sales, to 666 thousand cars. The supply and production of most foreign brands in the Russian Federation has been suspended since the spring of 2022 amid military operations in Ukraine and sanctions that prohibit the supply of a number of components and limit the supply of cars to the country.

Only AvtoVAZ, UAZ, GAZ and Chinese Haval continue production in Russia. Against this background, there is a shortage of supply in the market.

Aleksey Kalitsev, head of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, noted: “Until supplies stabilize, supply chains are restored, we do not expect prices to stabilize.”

Previously about this spoke analytics. They also note that demand in the market is rather low, talking about the importance of supporting it, including through preferential car loans, in such conditions.

Top-5 of the market over the past year has not changed significantly against the background of the fact that the pre-crisis first quarter was the highest (277 thousand cars). Implementation of the market leader Lada in January—December fell by 46%, up to 188.6 thousand vehicles. The Korean Kia remained the bestseller among foreign cars, sales of which fell by 68% to 66.1 thousand units. Next comes Hyundai (a drop of 67%, to 54.8 thousand cars), as well as GAZ, which has replenished the top 5 (a drop of 25%, to 42.1 thousand cars). In general, all top 10 brands showed a drop in sales compared to 2021, with the exception of Chery (an increase of 4%, to 38.5 thousand) and UAZ (an increase of 5%, to 33.9 thousand). Nissan, which left the Russian Federation, dropped out of the top ten, but another Renault brand that left Russia took sixth place with a score of 39.6 thousand cars (a drop of 70%).

In December 2022, sales decreased by 50.2% to 64.1 thousand units. Recall that the monthly data does not take into account the sales of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, as well as Chery and its sub-brands, which report only quarterly. The results of December still turned out to be higher than the previous months – by about 20 thousand, as it was in previous years, despite the shortage and the absence of wide pre-New Year discounts.

The AEB expects the new car market to grow by 12% to 0.77 million cars in 2023. At the same time, they believe that the weight of parallel imports of cars, which was launched in 2022, but has not yet begun to significantly affect market volumes, will grow.

Olga Nikitina