According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB) statistics, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia in March 2019 increased by 1.8% year-on-year amounting to 160.2 thousand mn units. During the first three months of the year, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles declined by 0.3% down to 391.7 thousand.
“The small plus in March sales, following a similarly small minus in February suggests the market is still looking for a firm direction this year. Cumulative sales in the first quarter are almost at prior year level, achieved through a much bigger effort by market participants as consumer demand is still lagging behind the momentum we saw one year ago. Government subsidies for lower-priced vehicles effective from March obviously also helped to improve the total market picture this month”, commented Joerg Schreiber, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.
Lada remained the leader of the Russian car market in March with its sales increasing by 10.1% year-on-year up to 33..8 thousand units.
KIA continues to rate the second with its sales amounting to 19.6 thousand cars, up 2.4% year-on-year.
Hyundai remains the third with its sales down 2.3% to 16.3 thousand cars.
Renault saw its sales decline by 7.1% year-on-year down to 13.1 thousand units.
Toyota forced Volkswagen out of the Top 5 in March occupying the fifth position, its sales increased by 3.5% up to 9.2 thousand units.
Among the car brands that demonstrated the most spectacular growth in February were Geely (up 4.4-fold), Haval (up 3.5-fold), HTM (up 3.5-fold) and Suzuki (up 2.2-fold).
The brands that saw their sales decline the most were автомобилей Mercedes-Benz (-75%), Honda (-60%), Lifan (-63%), smart (-55%) and Iveco commercial vehicels (-53%).