Is it true that Ukrainians are massively buying new cars?

“According to Ukrainian statistics and the data of the association Ukravtoprom, in 2023 the market of new cars in Ukraine has grown by 61% !!! The mass segment of new cars is led by Toyota, Renault and Skoda. But the most interesting changes in the premium car segment, sales of Porsche, Mercedes and BMW more than DOUBLE !!!
“Poor” Ukrainians, be sure to support the Ukrainians, although a rare Lithuanian owns a Porsche, but a good-hearted Lithuanian will still support RaDarom, so that Jakilaitis, Ochmanas and other organizers might also buy a new Porsche and they would not be ashamed to go to Ukraine”– asserted in a message distributed on social networks.

However, the message omits the fact that the growth of the car market is calculated from the beginning of the war, when naturally it has declined significantly. It is also not mentioned that even a third of new cars were purchased by companies.

According to the Ukravtoprom association of Ukrainian car manufacturers, in 2023, almost 61 thousand cars were sold in Ukraine. of new passenger cars (a third of which were purchased by companies) for more than 105.5 billion hryvnias (regarding 2.5 billion euros).

This is 1.6 times more than in 2022, when Ukrainians bought 37,900 new cars, the lowest figure since the beginning of the century.

Last year compared to 2021 – in the period immediately before the war, the market decline was visible throughout the months, occasionally only the sales of individual brands of cars grew.

Screenshot from statista.com/When the war started, a lot of SUVs were bought

On the statistics website “Statista” you can see how the market of new cars in Ukraine, which had been growing for several years until then, following the start of the war contracted by almost two thirds.

Based on these data, in 2021 103.25 thousand were sold, in 2022 – 37.89 thousand new vehicles. Last year, this number jumped to 75.99 thousand, this year it is predicted to grow to 86 thousand. So neither last year nor this year are expected the same numbers as they were just before the war.

Explained the difference

Public figure Andrius Tapinas as well provided by numbers that disprove the spreading lie that Ukrainians buy new cars with the money allocated for support.

“The market has actually grown compared to the first year of the war, 2023. 61,000 new cars were sold in Ukraine, and in 2022 – 38,000.

But the distortion comes out when you look at 2021. – the last year of peace, when 103,000 new cars were sold in Ukraine, which means that the market is still 30 percent. fallen And here, most likely, including new cars that entered Ukraine as support for the front.

And anyway, let’s compare. Ukraine – 37 million inhabitants, that means 1 new car in 2023. per 606 inhabitants. 31,000 new passenger cars were registered in Lithuania last year, or 1 car per 90 inhabitants. The difference is almost 7 times,” A. Tapinas explained in a post on the Facebook social network.

Motivated by benefits

Ukrainians in 2023 purchased 214,400 used cars imported from abroad (45% less than last year). The absolute majority of them were bought in the middle of the year, when from April 6. until July 1 a preferential regime for the import of used cars was in force.

Number of vehicles imported in October came back to a more or less pre-war level.

in 2023 Almost 61 thousand were sold in Ukraine. new passenger cars for more than 105.5 billion hryvnias (regarding 2.56 billion euros).

According to Ukravtoprom, legal entities spent more than 34.3 billion rubles on the purchase of new cars. hryvnias (830 million euros) and natural persons – regarding 71.2 billion. hryvnias (regarding 1.73 billion euros).

It is noted that most of this amount was spent on the purchase of Toyota cars – 16.4 billion. hryvnias (regarding 400 million euros).

The most popular car of this brand was the Toyota RAV-4 SUV. During the year, 2934 cars of this model were registered.

The second place was taken by BMW. BMW X5 (986 units) became the leader of this brand.

For Mercedes-Benz in third place, its bestseller was the Mercedes-Benz GLE (1,061 units sold).

The fourth place was occupied by Volkswagen, the best-selling car was the VW ID.4 (2655 units).

The top five was completed by Škoda, the most popular model was Škoda Kodiaq (1307 units).

15min verdict: missing context. Statistics on new car sales in Ukraine are misinterpreted. The growth of the market is calculated in comparison with the first years of the war, when the number of sales shrank significantly. It never returned to pre-war levels. It should also be noted that in Ukraine in 2023 estimated at regarding 37 million inhabitants, so the share of new cars per inhabitant remains small. It should also be emphasized that some of the new cars were intended for the front.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metait aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More regarding the program and its rules – here.