Corona crisis: the car market in Russia is not shrinking much

In the Corona crisis year 2020, the car market in Russia held up better than in many other countries, with sales falling by 9.1 percent compared to 2019. In the largest country in the world in terms of area, 1.599 million new cars were sold between January and December, announced the Association of European Businesses (AEB) in Moscow. The Russia boss of the car manufacturer Porsche, Thomas Stärtzel, said at an online conference on Thursday that the situation is expected to improve slightly this year. The market could grow by 2.1 percent to 1.632 million vehicles.

The manufacturers are thus far from their goal of making Russia the largest sales market in Europe. In Western Europe, however, car manufacturers sold almost a quarter fewer new cars than a year earlier. In Germany, sales fell by 19 percent.

Successful online sales

The prerequisite for new growth in Russia is that there is no new lockdown due to the corona crisis and no new sanctions by the West against Russia, said Stärtzel. In addition, the funding from the Russian government must continue.

The head of BMW Group Russia, Stefan Teuchert, said that thanks to digitization, Russia is getting through the crisis comparatively well. The country is more successful than others in Europe when it comes to online sales. From ordering to delivery, “everything is completely online”, he said. Volkswagen continues to be particularly popular among German makes in Russia – after the models from the Russian brand Lada, the VW Polo is one of the best-selling vehicles. (dpa / swi)

Also read:

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From the data center:

Top 20 models in Russia 2020

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