2024-05-11 02:00:00
Classic car brands turn into monuments of the past in Russia
In April 2024, “real foreign cars” fell out of the top 50 most popular models in Russia for the first time. By real, we mean old-fashioned car brands, known to Russians for many years: car manufacturers from Japan, the USA, Europe and South Korea. So, according to the Autostat agency, the most popular non-Chinese foreign car in April was the Hyundai Tucson, which took 57th place. Next come the Toyota Camry (58th), 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 listed 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
These cars are imported into the country under the parallel import program and their share from March to April decreased from 11 to 8 percent. The remaining 92% of the market was occupied by cars from Russian or Chinese brands. The exception is the Solaris brand, which is formally Russian (owned by the AGR Automotive Group), but de facto offers the usual Hyundai and Kia models assembled in St. Petersburg. To a certain extent, it can be said to be the most popular foreign car before the crisis. The Kaluga-assembled Citroen might enter 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 company in this project is still unclear: according to the official version, the cars are assembled from the remaining vehicle kits.
April 2024 can be considered the month when the transit period of the Russian automobile market ends. In two years, all concerns of “hostile countries” have left Russia and their imports into the Russian Federation have sharply decreased: they now no longer play a significant role in the market. Local production of foreign cars also decreased, the degree of localization decreased, but the overall share of imports, on the contrary, increased significantly; Sometimes they pass through intermediate countries (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), but in all cases, Russian imports tend to be unipolar, entirely oriented towards China. For two years they have promised to compete with him Iranian stampsbut things do not yet go beyond declarations.
Introduced April 1 new rules for calculating recycling collection they have further stifled “grey” and parallel imports, cementing a new reality in which the main players in the passenger car market are AVTOVAZ and major Chinese companies (Great Wall, Chery, Geely, Changan and their sub-brands). The importation of foreign cars of the “old wave”, although not prohibited, is now associated with many difficulties, including high customs duties, complex logistics and difficulties in transferring money abroad.
In Russia, the share of old and domestic cars is increasing, which, in a way, returns the country’s car fleet to the past.
In April, imports of new cars fell 34% compared to March (Autostat data), which was the worst indicator since August 2023, when the market feverish from the first wave of increased recycling collection. This was partly due to the rush in March, when importers brought in cars for future use. At the same time, overall car sales in April were down 7% compared to March. The difference in results is explained by the compensatory effect of AVTOVAZ, which set a 12-year sales recordoccupying almost a third of the market.
If we compare the popularity ratings of the models with those before the crisis, stability concerns only the top lines, dominated by Lada Granta and Vesta. Otherwise, the transformation is striking: if in 2019 the top 10 models, besides 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 periodically appear in the top 10 of the Russian market, for example, Lixiang and Jaecoo.
Lixiang became a star of gray imports (not to be confused with parallel), but in April, car imports declined and the brand fell out of the top 10 in sales.
The effect of the new import rules is most clearly visible on the Geely Monjaro. Until April, it was actively imported both 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 regarding a quarter: apparently, this share was occupied by “gray” imports.
AVTOVAZ meanwhile announced a price increase. Despite good sales results, the situation at the factory is complicated by the fact that Chinese brands have begun to lower prices and directly compete with Lada Vesta. So AVTOVAZ push for a further increase in recycling collection.
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