According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB) statistics, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia in January-May 2020 declined by 25.7% year-on-year making 478.1 thousand units. In May, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles dropped by 51.8% year-on-year, but grew by 61.9% month-on-month to make slightly over 63 thousand units.
“Again this month we see a strong decrease in new vehicle sales by – 51.8% versus May 2019, which is not a surprise because showrooms of Moscow, St Petersburg and most of the regional dealers continued to be closed the entire month. Workshops could re-start their operations and consequently customer traffic gained some momentum. We hope that with the recent release of the restrictions in most of the country June will show slight improvement of the situation and contribute to the sustainability of the dealer network. The implementation of first governmental support measures should contribute to a slow market recovery in the second half of the year,” Thomas Staertzel, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, commented.
There were some changes in the Top-5 brands in May. Lada remained the leader of the Russian car market with its sales decreasing by 45.8% year-on-year down 15.6 thousand units.
KIA continued to rate the second with its sales amounting to 8 thousand cars, down 58.9% year-on-year.
Hyundai ranked the third with 6.5 thousand cars sold, down 56.5% year-on-year.
Renault saw its sales drop by 46.8% year-on-year down to 5.6 thousand units and moved to the fourth position in the rating.
Toyota was the fifth with 4.5 thousand cars sold, don 43.1% year-on-year.
Changan demonstrated the most significant sales growth in May, up 2.2-fold. FAW (+19%) and FIAT commercial vehicles (+1%) also demonstrated a positive trend.