According to the Association of European Businesses (AEB) statistics, the sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia in 2021 increased by 4.3% year-on-year and to make 1.67 mn units. In December alone, 133.5 thousand cars and light commercial vehicles were sold, down 19.9% year-on-year and up 6.4% month-on-month.
“The positive figures 2021 result from the growth dynamics of only the second quarter 2021 versus the same period of 2020 with lockdown effects. The negative trend of the last two quarters ended up in December with a huge decrease of 19,9%. In December 2021, only 133 470 cars were sold. All this is a result of negative market effects of global factors, such as deficit of electronic components, logistics problems, supply chains breaks, increase in costs of materials, etc. There is no sign of a rapid improvement of the situation,” Thomas Staertzel, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, commented.
“Since 2015, the Russian automotive market is quite stable remaining between 1,4 and 1,8 mn vehicles. Assuming that all the negative factors will not be resolved during the main part of 2022, the Committee believes that the car market will not change much and forecasts an increase of 3,3% with the total sale of cars and LCVs of 1 722 000 units”, he added.
Lada remained the leader of the Russian car market in December 2021 with its sales down 26.6% year-on-year to 29.9 thousand units.
KIA rated the second with its sales down 30.9% year-on-year to 14.5 thousand cars.
Renault moved up to the third position, its sales declined slightly by 0.7% year-on-year down to more than 12 thousand units.
Toyota also moved up raking the fourth with its December sales up 12.9% year-on-year to more than 10.4 thousand units.
Hyundai stepped down to the fifth position with its sales dropping 53.6% year-on-year to make 7.6 thousand cars.
The brands that increased their sales the most were Genesis (up 7.2-fold), Chevrolet (up 5.2-fold), Cheryexeed (up 5.2-fold), Opel (up 2.8-fold), and Chery (up 2-fold).
The brands that saw their sales decline the most were Foton commercial vehicles (-95%), Lifan (-94%), Brilliance (-93%), Subaru (-70%), and Volkswagen commercial vehicles (-66%).