Well beyond the previous record
Dark clouds have been hanging over the Russian car market for a long time, but they are getting darker. This has not gone unnoticed by Vladimir Putin himself, who is now calling on his government to implement more price controls.
Since records are being kept, so few cars have never been sold in Russia in one year. That both are bad the market Self the industry there, nothing new. Today we will find out how bad things are. Maxim Sokolov, chief executive officer of Avtovaz (one of the largest players in the Russian auto industry), expects total sales of between 670,000 and 700,000 cars. This is much less than in the second worst year of the Russian car market, when more than 1 million cars were sold, writes the Reuters news agency.
There is now a drop in sales of over 60%. For comparison: in 2012, more than 3 million cars rolled out of Russian showrooms in one year. The sanctions following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 have already caused the first difficulties, according to Reuters. While Russian automakers are doing their best to keep production numbers up, Western sanctions introduced this year make that quite difficult. Here’s how they were recently Lada without airbag built, because parts from abroad were simply missing.
Fewer customers thanks to mobilisation
It’s not just because low car sales are due to the industry collapsing and many Western manufacturers leaving the country. Patronage has also disappeared. Purchasing power in the country has dropped sharply since the start of the war in Ukraine, and car prices have risen, as have prices for all kinds of other products. Also, there are by definition fewer customers due to the mobilisation.
To prevent cars from being disproportionately more expensive, Putin himself is now involved. He is urging his government to impose price controls on the auto industry. To reassure Putin, Denis Manturov, the country’s trade minister, said established names in the sector – with or without the help of subsidies – were doing everything. And that Moskvitch later this month start making cars again…
