The share of imported cars in the Russian market increased to 25% in 2022

Every fourth new passenger car purchased by Russians in 2022 was produced abroad. This is reported by the experts of "AUTOSTAT" agency with reference to the data of JSC "PPK"*. Recall that in 2022, 626.3 thousand new cars were purchased in Russia, which is 59% lower than in 2021. At the same time, locally produced cars accounted for three quarters (75.2%) of the market, i.e. 471.1 thousand units.

Accordingly, the remaining quarter (24.8%) are imported cars (155.2 thousand units). Experts also noted that the market size of locally assembled cars fell by 62%, while market size of imported cars - by 43%. Recall that in favor of anti-Russian sanctions in the spring, many manufacturers, primarily from Japan and European countries, stopped their plants in Russia, as a result of which sales of such cars fell sharply. The same thing happened with Korean brands, which did not join the sanctions, but were forced to stop the assembly due to a violation of the logistics of supplying components. Sales of locally assembled cars in 2022 were mainly driven by LADA, Kia, Hyundai and Renault. In total, these four brands had 70% of local assembly. In this regard, Haval can also be noted, which has its own plant in the Tula region. The sale of imported cars was largely due to the “Chinese”, that do not support sanctions and continue official deliveries to our market. Thus, Chinese brands Chery, Geely and EXEED made up a half of this volume. In addition, we should not forget about the parallel import mechanism approved by the Government of the Russian Federation.

Already, many dealers are actively using it, by offering customers cars imported directly (bypassing the distributor) from abroad. As a result, the segment of imported cars in 2022 felt better than the market, in connection with which its share increased from 18.2% (in 2021) to 24.8%. Thus, every fourth sold new passenger car was brought from abroad. The dynamics by brands in both segments is clearly shown in the picture. In the segment of locally assembled cars, you can get acquainted with the data of 18 leading brands in terms of market volume, and among imported ones, it is TOP-25.

* JSC "PPK" ("Passport Industrial Consulting") is a joint venture of JSC "Electronic Passport" and LLC "AUTOSTAT".