Classic car brands are turning into monuments of the past in Russia
In April 2024, “real foreign cars” fell out of the 50 most popular models in Russia for the first time. By real, we mean old-school car brands that have been familiar to Russians for many years: car makers from Japan, the USA, Europe and South Korea. So, according to the Autostat group, the most popular non-Chinese foreign car in April was the Hyundai Tucson, which took 57th place. Then came the Toyota Camry (58th place), Kia Sportage (59th), BMW X5 (61st), Lexus RX (62nd), Toyota RAV4 (64th). And the best American model was the Chevrolet Monza in 79th place. By the way, some of the registered cars are also imported from China, for example, the Monza is an analogue of the Chevrolet Cruze for the Chinese market.
Hyundai Tucson of different generations became the leader among non-Chinese foreign cars in April 2024
Such cars are imported into the country under the parallel import scheme, and its share from March to April decreased from 11 to 8%. The remaining 92% of the market was occupied by cars with Russian or Chinese brands. The exception is the Solaris brand, which is formally Russian (owned by AGR Automotive Group), but de facto offers the standard Hyundai and Kia models assembled in St. Petersburg. With a special piece, it can be considered the most popular foreign car from pre-crisis times. Perhaps Citroen, collected by Kaluga, will get into the top 50, but this has not happened yet.
Solaris HS is a copy of Hyundai Solaris. But formally this is a Russian brand, and the role of the Korean concern in this project is not yet clear: according to the official version, the cars are assembled from the remaining vehicle facilities.
April 2024 can be considered as the month when the transition period for the Russian car market will end. Within two years, all concerns from “unfriendly countries” left Russia and their imports to the Russian Federation decreased significantly: now they have no significant place for the market . The production of foreign cars has also fallen, the level of localization has decreased, but the total share of imports, on the other hand, has increased significantly; it’s just that Chinese brands have replaced the previous brands. Sometimes they are transported through intermediate countries (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), but in any case, Russian imports tend to be unipolar, completely focused on China. For two years now they have been promising to compete with him Iran stampsbut things do not go beyond proofs yet.
Introduced on April 1 new rules for calculating recycling collection They also choked both “grey” and parallel imports, confirming a new reality where the main players in the passenger car market AVTOVAZ and the main Chinese concerns (Great Wall, Chery, Geely, Changan and their sub-brands). The import of “old wave” foreign cars, although not prohibited, is now associated with many problems, including high customs duties, complex logistics and problems with transferring money. abroad.
In Russia, the sector of old cars and domestic cars is growing, which in a sense returns the country’s vehicle fleet to the past.
In April, new car imports fell by 34% compared to March (Autostat data), which was the worst indicator since August 2023, when the market fever from the first wave of a larger recrudescence. This was partly due to the March rush, when importers brought in cars for future use. Meanwhile, total car sales in April were down 7% compared to March. The difference in results is explained by the compensation effect of AVTOVAZ, which set a 12-year sales recordoccupies almost a third of the market.
If we compare the popularity levels of models with pre-crisis times, durability is only on the top lines, dominated by Lada Granta and Vesta. Otherwise, the transformation is amazing: if the 10 best models in 2019, in addition to Lada, included Kia Rio, Hyundai Solaris and Creta, Volkswagen Polo, Renault Duster and Logan, Skoda Rapid , now they are Haval Jolion, Chery Tiggo 7 and 4, Omoda C5, Geely Monjaro, Haval M6. And very exotic brands appear from time to time in the top 10 of the Russian market, for example, Lixiang and Jaecoo.
Lixiang became a star in gray imports (not to be confused with parallel), but in April the car’s imports decreased, and the brand fell out of the top 10 sales
The impact of the new import regulations is clearly visible on the Geely Monjaro. Until April, it was actively imported by official and “gray” imports, and for the first three months it was in the top 5 of the Russian market, but in April it fell to 9th place Sales fell by about a quarter: apparently, there were “grey” imports in this portion.
AVTOVAZ at the same time announced a price hike. Despite good sales results, the situation for the plant is complicated because Chinese brands have started to reduce prices and directly competition with Lada Vesta. So AVTOVAZ lobbying for another increase in recycling collection.
2024-05-11 02:00:00
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