The volume of loans issued to Russians for the purchase of cars in 2021 for the first time exceeded 1 trillion rubles, calculated by the National Bureau of Credit Histories (NBKI) based on data from 4,000 lenders. The total amount of car loans for new and used cars last year reached 1.11 trillion rubles. This is 45.6% more than in 2020, when this figure amounted to 768.8 billion rubles.
Most car loans in monetary terms were issued in Moscow (138.6 billion rubles), the Moscow region (88.6 billion rubles), St. Petersburg (77.4 billion rubles), as well as the Krasnodar Territory (57 billion) and Tatarstan (43.7 billion). The largest increase in the volume of loans issued among the 30 leading regions was recorded in Krasnodar Territory (+82.1% compared to 2020), Stavropol Territory (+69%), Irkutsk Region (+68.1%), Krasnoyarsk Territory (+ 64.7%) and the Moscow region (+61.5%). In Moscow, this figure grew by 57.4% over the year, in St. Petersburg – by 46.6%.
“In the second half of the year, there was a slight decrease in the number of car loans issued, while the average check for them grew, which ultimately led to record values of the annual volume of car loans issued,” said Alexei Volkov, NBKI Marketing Director. He explained this by the continuing shortage of new cars, the end of the state program of preferential car loans in the first half of the year, as well as the tightening of the credit policy of banks. As a positive factor, he noted the serious development of car loans in the secondary market.
In 2021, in Russia, according to the NBKI, just over a million loans were issued for the purchase of a car. This is the second result in the history of observations – more was only in 2013, when the number of car loans issued amounted to 1.1 million. The agency also notes a significant increase in demand for car loans last year: citizens filed 7.46 million applications for such loans, which is 29.2% more than a year earlier.
According to the calculations of the Association of European Businesses, sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia in 2021 increased by 4.3% compared to 2020 and amounted to 1.67 million units. The Association predicts a slight increase in sales for the current year by 3.3%, to 1.72 million.