AvtoVAZ sold 350,714 vehicles in Russia in 2021, which is 2% more than in 2020. Olivier Mornet, executive vice president of the company for sales and marketing, told reporters on January 12. The entire market of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) in Russia, according to AvtoVAZ, grew by 5% in 2021 to 1.68 million vehicles. Accordingly, the company’s market share decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 20.9%.
The model-leader of the Russian market, according to AvtoVAZ, was Lada Vesta. The car was sold with a circulation of 113,698 units, the market share was 6.8% (+0.1 percentage points compared to 2020). In second place is Lada Granta. In 2021, 111,430 such cars were sold in Russia, the market share of the model was 6.7%, down 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year. This happened due to the shortage of microchips faced by AvtoVAZ and other automakers, follows from the presentation of the company (Vedomosti has it).
Also in 2021, AvtoVAZ sold 50,114 Lada Largus, 51,242 Niva family vehicles and 12,696 Lada commercial vehicles on various chassis, follows from the presentation.
AvtoVAZ was the first Russian automaker to experience a global shortage of microelectronic components in 2021. The plant in Tolyatti suspended assembly in the summer and autumn due to a shortage of Bosch microchips. Car dealers interviewed by Vedomosti said at the time that these unscheduled pauses led to a shortage of the most popular Granta and Vesta models. Lada Vesta cars are assembled by the AvtoVAZ division in Izhevsk. This plant did not stand idle in 2021 due to a shortage of components for assembly, unlike the Granta production line in Tolyatti.
Due to a shortage of chips, since the second half of September, the automaker has temporarily stopped equipping manufactured cars with Era Glonass emergency call modules. Dealers of the brand said that AvtoVAZ notified the sellers of the need to conclude an additional agreement with customers that these modules would be installed no later than mid-2022.
In addition, AvtoVAZ planned from mid-November 2021 to oblige dealers to sell cars only with additional equipment from the factory in order to support sales. The Federal Antimonopoly Service then explained that this meant the introduction of new vehicle configurations, that is, no bans on the sale of cars without new equipment are planned.
According to Mornet, the situation with the shortage of microelectronic components should improve by the second half of 2022.
Speaking about what the car market could look like in 2022, Morne noted that it is difficult to give specific figures, since so many parameters will influence it. “What we now tentatively feel cautiously is that there may be a small increase to 1.75 million units. This is such a basic forecast,” said the top manager. He did not disclose data on predicted sales of Lada in 2022, but noted that the main task of the company is to maintain a market share of at least 20%.
“The reason that AvtoVAZ slightly lost market share is not that the demand for their cars has decreased. The reason is problems with the supply of components, microelectronics. Now there is demand, the question is whether manufacturers can satisfy it,” Vladimir Bespalov, an analyst at VTB Capital, told Vedomosti. According to the expert’s forecast, AvtoVAZ’s sales dynamics in 2022 will not differ much from the market dynamics and will remain at the level of 2021. “We will see a slight subsidence in the market in the first half of the year due to a high base and ongoing problems with the supply of components. Based on the results of the whole year, the market will remain plus or minus at the level of 2021 and AvtoVAZ will show approximately the same dynamics,” Bespalov believes.
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