Russians spoke about their expectations for the car market in 2023

Experts of "AUTOSTAT" agency recently announced their forecast for the car market for 2023, according to which growth is expected even in the most pessimistic forecasts. At the same time, together with colleagues from Za Rulem, we decided to find out about similar expectations from ordinary car owners. To this end, in early February, a joint online survey was conducted, in which more than 1,200 people took part. The smallest category of surveyed were those who think that 2023 will repeat 2022 in terms of its results - 16.6% or one in six of the participants were such. The remaining 83% of respondents can be roughly divided into "pessimists" (those who think that the market will fall) and "optimists" (who hope that it will rise). It is curious, but almost every second person fell into the category of pessimists: in total, 49.8% of those who expect the car market to fall have accumulated. At the same time, the largest group (29.4%) of those who do not believe in the market were those who believe that it will fall by more than 20%. And 9% of respondents are confident that the market decline will be in the range of 10-20%, and a little more (11.4%) think that it will not exceed 10%. "Optimists" in our survey totaled one third (33.6%) of the total number of participants.

Of these, 8.1% of respondents expect the car market to grow by more than 20%, another 8.9% also predict growth, but by 10-20%. 9.9% of respondents believe that the market will grow in the range of 5-10%, but 6.7% of respondents think that it will grow within 5%. Kirill Mileshkin, editor of Za Rulem, comments: From a professional point of view, the year promises to be very interesting. A lot of new products are expected: projects in Russia are multiplying, "gray" deliveries are increasing. Even if only a part of it comes true, there is something to write about. But in terms of demand, I do not expect growth. Look at the prices! There are actually no new foreign cars cheaper than 2 million. Until recently, we were horrified that a B-class sedan costs about 1 - 1.2 million rubles. But since then, Russians began to earn only less.

So where does growth come from? Plus we have the ongoing general uncertainty. In my opinion, now it is not the time to spend money on a new car (especially with a loan). But the Russian market is unusual because it doesn't give a damn about objective factors. Do you remember how dealers shamelessly added 300-500 thousand to the prices of Solaris and Creta? And they were sold out! Therefore, I will not be surprised if the market suddenly goes up.