In February, 41,851 new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) were sold in Russia, which is 62% less compared to February 2022. This is stated in the message of the Automobile Manufacturers Committee of the Association of European Businesses (AEB). Sales for the first two months of 2023 are down 62.5% to 74,350 vehicles.
More than half of the market in February 2023 was accounted for by AvtoVAZ, which was able to sell 23,437 cars, which is 5% more than a year earlier. The second and third places in the top sales were taken by Chinese brands. Haval sold 5324 vehicles (+49%), Geely – 4053 (+85%). Rounding out the top five market leaders are domestic GAZ and UAZ with 2,625 (-31%) and 1,525 (-9%) cars sold, respectively.
The Korean Kia, once one of the most popular foreign cars among Russians, sold only 1,515 cars in February 2023, 90% less than in the same month last year. It is being overtaken by the Chinese brand Changan with 1,050 cars sold (more than doubling). The rest of the brands, including the equipment under its own brand Sollers (the group owns UAZ), which debuted at the end of last year, sold significantly less than a thousand cars in February.
The statistics do not include indicators of another market leader – the Chinese Chery, which switched to quarterly sales reporting. For comparison: in 2022, Chery and its sub-brands Exeed and Omoda collectively sold 53,704 cars in Russia, while the closest competitor, Haval, only 33,642 cars.
At the same time, in the week from February 27 to March 5, a record volume of car sales for the last year was recorded. According to Avtostat and the electronic PTS system, 21,902 new cars were sold in Russia during this time. More than 80% of them were for cars, 12% for trucks, 7% for LCVs, and 1% for buses. Before that, the best time for the market after the start of the CBO in Ukraine was the last week of 2022, when 21,408 new cars were sold.
The result for the past week could be partly technical, since there were 4 days off the week before, explains Sergey Udalov, executive director of Avtostat. Then not all dealers worked and did not register cars, and they (registrations) moved to the last week, he clarifies. “The market continues to grow very slowly, mainly due to the growth in output, imports are no longer growing so dynamically,” the expert says.
February 2023 was the last month in which the comparatively high base of the previous year influenced the dynamics of sales figures. At the end of February 2022, CBO began in Ukraine, and already in March, sales of new passenger cars and LCVs in Russia fell by 63% compared to March 2021.
There will be an increase in the production of automotive equipment in Russia in 2023, but given the existing difficulties, this is unlikely to happen before the middle of the year, says Sergey Burgazliev, an independent consultant on the automotive industry. According to him, a significant increase in supplies of parallel imports should not be expected either, since it is hampered by the current rules for issuing conclusions on the safety of a vehicle structure.
The baseline forecast of Avtostat assumes an increase in the passenger car market by a quarter in 2023 – up to 780,000 units. The AEB is more restrained and forecasts a 12% increase in sales of new passenger cars and LCVs in 2023 to 770,000 units.