According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB) statistics, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia during January-October 2021 increased by 10.5% year-on-year and to make 1.31 mn units. In October alone, 126.2 thousand cars and light commercial vehicles were sold, up 18.1% year-on-year and up 5.6% month-on-month.
“October is the 4th month in a row when the market has been decreasing. In October 2021 only 126 204 cars and LCVs were sold. This is by 18,1% less than a year ago. Sales of cars and LCVs from January to October 2021 amount to 1 313 579 units which is 10,5% above the same period of the previous year. There is still a long way to overcome the global production shortage and new problems with logistics due to breaks of the supply chains,” Thomas Staertzel, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, commented.
“Positive and worth mentioning is that, despite of all the difficulties, the BEV segment continues its growth with the year to date sales of 845 vehicles, which is already 118 % higher than the total sales of 2020. The positive BEV sales dynamic fosters the development of the charging infrastructure and helps distributors to bring more and also more affordable BEV models to the Russian market. Of course, the rising BEV market segment can be later occupied by locally produced models. This positive development could be significantly undermined by a non-prolongation of 0-import customs duty for BEVs during the next years with then BEV prices increase, leading to decline of customer demand and respective stagnation of the BEV sales dynamic. Also some OEMs might delay there BEV model launches in Russia due to higher cost for smaller than planned sales volumes. Therefore, our Committee is convinced that the prolongation of the 0-import customs duty for BEVs is mutually beneficial for all market participants and the Government,” he said.
Lada remained the leader of the Russian car market in October 2021 with its sales down 51.3% year-on-year to 17.2 thousand units.
KIA rated the second with its sales down 16.5% year-on-year to 17 thousand cars.
Hyundai was the third with its sales amounting to 13.2 thousand cars, down 14.7% year-on-year.
Renault was back to the Top 5 and ranked the fourth, its sales declined by 36.2% year-on-year down to 9.2 thousand units.
Toyota replaced Volkswagen in the fifth position with its sales up 5.8% year-on-year to 8.5 thousand units.
The brands that increased their sales the most were Genesis (up 4.6-fold), Haval (up 3-fold), Chery (up 2.8-fold), Peugeot commercial vehicles (up 2.1-fold), and Opel commercial vehicles (up 2-fold).
The brands that saw their sales decline the most were Foton (-96%), Brilliance (-93%), Lifan (-91%), and Jaguar (-81%).