According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB) statistics, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia during January-July 2020 declined by 19.3% year-on-year making 742.7 thousand units.
In July, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles were up 6.8% year-on-year and up 15.7% month-on-month to make 141.9 thousand units.
“With an increase of 6.8%, July is the first month this year with significant growth versus the previous year, which shows signs of the long awaited recovery. This strong performance is fired, on the one hand, by the deferred demand of the previous months of closed operation and, on the other hand, by the weakening Ruble. The current YoY July results show decrease of 19,3%, which is below the AEB 2020 forecast of -23,9%. The good sales results of the total market are also supported by the governmental measures. The sales increase of some brands could be even higher without car stock deficiency linked to the production lock-downs during spring. For the premium market, even better sales dynamics can be assumed. Current market predictability is low due to unknown development of the currency, potential price measures, economic and financial effects and even new potential lock-downs linked to the pandemic situation, which might make further governmental support very important for dealers and manufacturers,” Thomas Staertzel, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, commented.
Lada remained the leader of the Russian car market in June with its sales up 5.7% year-on-year to 31.2 thousand units.
KIA continues to rate the second with its sales amounting to 18 thousand cars, down 4.1% year-on-year.
Hyundai remains the third with its sales up 3.4% year-on-year to 14.3 thousand cars.
Škoda climbed to the fourth position in the ranking with 12.3 thousand cars sold, up 68.7% year-on-year.
Renault stepped down to the fifth position with its sales declining slightly by 1.4% year-on-year down to 11.6 thousand units.
Among the car brands that demonstrated the most spectacular growth in March were Changan (up 3.5-fold), FAW (up 3.5-fold), Isuzu commercial vehicles (up 2.3-fold), and Chery (up 2-fold).
The brands that saw their sales decline the most were Ford (-98%), Chevrolet (-98%), Zotye (-86%), Foton commercial vehicles (-73%), Lifan (-68%), Infiniti (-68%), and Jaguar (-59%).