Sales of new passenger cars and commercial vehicles fell by 84% in May

by time news

Sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) in Russia in May updated the anti-record of the previous month, reaching 24,268 vehicles sold, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said in a statement. This is 83.5% less than in May last year. In the first five months of 2022, the market decreased by 52% to 663,312 vehicles.

Sales of AvtoVAZ over the past month fell by 84% to 6012 cars, Kia – by 81% to 3606 cars, Hyundai – by 82% to 2916 cars. The GAZ Group moved up to the fourth line of the sales top, but its sales also decreased – by 57% to 1890 vehicles. Decrease in sales of Renault leaving the market was 86% to 1789 cars. UAZ was on the sixth line, showing a decrease by 41% to 1302 vehicles. This concludes the shortlist of those who sold more than 1,000 vehicles in May.

In the model section, the leadership was retained by AvtoVAZ products. According to the results of May, Lada Granta ranks first with a result of 2,305 sold cars (-10,524 units), Lada Vesta is in second place, 1,538 cars (-8,512), and Kia Rio is in third, which sold 1,202 units (-5,480), further – Hyundai Creta from 1197 cars (-4520). And in fifth place is Lada Niva with a total of 1102 cars sold (-5067). At the same time, AvtoVAZ was idle for most of May, gradually resuming the assembly of cars from June 3.

According to the forecasts of the Russian Automobile Dealers Association (RoAD), sales of new cars in 2022 will collapse at least twice (Vedomosti wrote about this on April 21). Last year, 1.67 million new passenger cars and LCVs were sold in Russia, according to AEB data.

Under the current conditions, the number of car dealers in Russia will be halved by the end of the year, Svetlana Vinogradova, general director of the Rolf car dealer, said in an interview with Vedomosti. According to her, this is the most optimistic scenario, because the fall could be much stronger.

According to the analytical agency Avtostat and RoAD, as of April 2022, there were 3,203 car dealer companies in Russia. Thus, by the end of the year, auto retail may be short of about 1,600 enterprises.

The RoAD representative noted the shutdown of production and the withdrawal of auto concerns, double VAT barriers for legal entities reselling used cars, a shortage of spare parts and other problems in the segment that not all market players will be able to withstand.

In early April, Avtostat released a forecast according to which sales of new passenger cars in Russia (excluding light commercial vehicles) in 2022 will decrease by 35–70%, depending on which scenario is implemented. The pessimistic scenario assumes a market drop of 70% to 470,000 units, the base one – by 50% to 750,000 vehicles, the optimistic one – by 35% to 980,000 vehicles (Vedomosti wrote about these forecasts on April 7).

While the market is going according to the worst of the outlined scenarios, Sergey Udalov, executive director of Avtostat, states. Such a forecast took into account good sales in the first three months, and then a sharp decline in the market and a recovery in shipments in the second half of the year from AvtoVAZ, Chinese and Korean brands, the expert explained. While there is hope that some supply chains of components can be established, Udalov said.

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