The Russian car market is once again the third largest in Europe, narrowly missing second place
6 hours ago | Petr Prokopec
Photo: Chery
The impact of the sanctions imposed on Russia will certainly be discussed for a long time and there is no point in jumping to conclusions. From a medium-term point of view, however, it is obvious that at least they did not sink the Russian car market. And the places of brands like Škoda were taken by the Chinese.
Economic sanctions, in addition to the provision of various forms of aid, are the main way Western countries have responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is a usual and understandable step, but the nature of some of the sanctions introduced from the beginning does not look like a path that should harm exclusively or dominantly the Russians.
First of all, we have never understood why the sanctions are intended to restrict the export of anything non-military to this country. Such restrictions can be accepted by Russia itself as a reaction to the ban on the export of its goods to the EU or the USA, but why are we banning it ourselves? The idea that someone will make significant use of the Skoda Octavia in the war is naive, it looks more like an attempt to punish the Russians by not being able to buy something. But who does it hurt more in the end?
If anyone felt that this would sink the Russian car market simply because there would be nothing to buy, they were wrong. This was fully demonstrated in August this year, when a total of 109,731 new cars were sold in Russia after several months of growth. Compared to the same period last year, this is a 2.6-fold increase in registrations, in which, apart from Lady, mainly Chinese car companies have a share, which took advantage of the offered opportunity and quickly occupied the empty space vacated by brands such as Škoda. For them, Russia was the second largest market in the world, now it is nothing for them.
It is not the first time that we have mentioned that sales in Russia are growing rapidly again, but what is particularly noteworthy is its return to the automotive map of Europe. Thanks to the mentioned sales, the country became again the third largest car market in Europe, only Germany (273,417 units) and France (113,499 units) sold more new cars in August. The land of the Gallic Rooster is also within easy reach.
The balance for the first eight months of this year is not so good for the Russians, but even in this respect it is evident that the market is returning to its old ways. Almost 607,000 new cars were sold, i.e. 41 percent more than last year. Analysts thus assume that this year’s final bill could even rise to 950,000 to 1 million cars. That’s really not enough.
Currently, just for the sake of completeness, we will add that Russia has surpassed both Great Britain, Italy and Spain. In these countries, 85,657, 79,756 and 55,597 new cars were sold in August, respectively. In all these markets, including leader Germany and second France, there was year-on-year growth. Compared to Russia, however, this is only a small shift.
Bestsellers in Russia are cars like the Chery Tiggo 4 SUV, which is also produced in the country. Chery itself is taking more and more bites out of the Russian pie, and it has something to offer, sales there are almost back to where they were before the war. This Chinese brand alone can claim up to 200,000 Russian registrations this year. Photo: Chery
Source: Avtostat
Petr Prokopec
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2023-09-09 11:23:00
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