Russian and Chinese passenger cars together occupied a significant part of the new car market in the Russian Federation, although a year ago they collectively accounted for less than a third of sales.
Such data on Tuesday, February 7, were presented by experts of the Avtostat analytical agency.
According to experts, among the new cars purchased in Russia in the first month of 2023, 40.6% of the models belonged to domestic brands, and 38.1% to Chinese ones.
For comparison: in January 2022, the values were only 20.3 and 9.6%, respectively.
At the beginning of last year, the main players in the Russian car market were manufacturers from Europe and South Korea, whose products accounted for 26.9 and 24.5% in total sales.
Meanwhile, now these figures have fallen to 6.1 and 8.7%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the share of Japanese cars decreased from 17.8% to 5.7%, and American cars from 1% to 0.8%.
In January 2023, Lada cars were the best-selling in Russia.
Every third car (39%) bought in the country belongs to this brand.
In addition, Chinese foreign cars Chery (12.2%), Haval (9.1%) and Geely (7.7%), as well as Korean Kia (5.1%) are very popular among the population.
“Most of the automakers that worked with us at the beginning of last year left or stopped production in Russia.
There are still remnants of cars that appeared before the departure of foreign brands or brought later by parallel imports, but there are not many of them.
There are stable revenues only from AvtoVAZ, UAZ and Chinese manufacturers, ”Igor Morzharetto, partner of the Avtostat agency, told RT.
According to the company, a year ago, about 82% of cars sold in the Russian Federation were produced domestically: 20% belonged to domestic brands, and 62% belonged to foreign cars assembled in Russia.
At the same time, imported cars accounted for only 18% of sales.
Now cars made in Russia occupy 61% of the market.
Of these, 41% are domestic models, and 20% are foreign cars assembled in the Russian Federation.
In turn, the share of cars delivered from abroad increased to 39%.
About 31% of this volume is occupied by official imports from China, and 8% is parallel imports - the mechanism allows you to import original foreign products into the country without the consent of the copyright holders.
“That is, we see that the departure of European, Korean, Japanese and American concerns has freed up space for the Russian and Chinese car industry.
Naturally, domestic companies and manufacturers from China have increased the number of dealerships, occupied free space in car dealerships and started producing their models in an expanded range, ”Artyom Deev, head of the AMarkets analytical department, explained in an interview with RT.
Over the year, the number of dealers of Chinese brands in the Russian Federation increased by 46%, to 1.05 thousand, and Russian ones, by 8%, to 452. In total, there are a little more than 3.16 thousand car dealer centers in the country today.
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According to Igor Morzharetto, at the moment brands from China offer Russian motorists more and more new models and great deals.
Moreover, as the expert emphasized, in terms of quality, Chinese foreign cars no longer actually differ from Korean ones and have come close to European ones.
“As a result, the attitude of Russians towards models from China is becoming more favorable, as evidenced by growing sales.
In terms of prices, of course, it is quite difficult to compare, since the entire model range, including Chinese, has risen in price in our market by 30-50% over the past year, ”added Morzharetto.
Nevertheless, according to Artyom Deev, on average, Chinese cars are still cheaper than their Western counterparts, which suits many Russians.
However, it is domestic brands that remain the best-selling ones, since for many drivers the greater availability of auto parts remains a key advantage, the analyst added.
Predictive optimism
In 2022, against the background of large-scale Western sanctions against Moscow and the withdrawal of some foreign companies from the Russian Federation, sales of new cars in the country fell by almost 59%.
So, if back in 2021, Russians bought about 1.52 million cars from the assembly line, then by the end of 2022, the value decreased to 626 thousand, calculated in Avtostat.
According to the agency's experts, in 2023 the market will begin to gradually recover.
Moreover, if back in January, the company's specialists predicted sales growth for the current year at best by 25% - up to 780 thousand, now analysts do not exclude an increase in the indicator immediately by 39% - up to 870 thousand units.
It is the growing presence of Chinese and Russian cars that will largely contribute to the restoration of the market, Igor Morzharetto believes.
However, according to him, it may take a long time to return sales to pre-crisis levels.
A similar assessment is shared by Mark Goykhman, chief analyst at TeleTrade.
“In the market structure, the share of Russian and Chinese cars this year may increase to 50 and 40%, respectively.
Restoring sales volumes is possible within a few years in the event of an increase in household incomes and solvent demand, as well as maintaining relatively low car loan rates, ”RT’s interlocutor suggested.
It should be noted that back in July 2022, the authorities restarted the concessional lending program in Russia.
As part of the initiative, you can get a loan on favorable terms when buying domestic UAZ, Lada and GAZ vehicles worth up to 2 million rubles.
In this case, the discount will be 25% of the price of the vehicle in the Far Eastern Federal District and 20% in other regions of the country.
Initially, the program was supposed to end on December 20, 2022, but the Ministry of Industry and Trade extended it to 2023.