The Russian car market grew by 18% in May

Sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles grew by 18% in Russia in May and they were 147,525 vehicles. According to the results of five months of 2018, the Russian car market grew by 20% to 692,870 vehicles, according to the data of the Association of European Businesses.

As noted in the AEB, in May the Russian car market continued its confident recovery with an improvement of 18% compared to the same month of the last year. The total increase in sales in the first five months of this year is at the level of 20%, which is a significant step forward, compared with the 5% growth that was shown in 2017. This encouraging trend reflects the positive dynamics in retail as a whole, and it is accompanied by a steady increase in consumer confidence.

In recent weeks, car sales in particular have benefited from a weaker ruble, prompting buyers not to delay with the buying of a car. It remains to be seen whether this factor will have the opposite effect on the future behavior of retail sales, and to what extent, noted in the association. Recall, according to the AEB forecast, in 2018, the Russian car market could grow by 10% to 1.75 million cars in the last year.

Leadership in the Russian car market is held by AvtoVAZ, which sold 35,051 LADA cars in the last month, which is more by 14% than a year ago. The second place in terms of sales was occupied by KIA - the sales of 19,561 cars (+ 29%) provided the Korean brand with the leadership in the foreign car market. Hyundai keeps the third place with the figure of 15,859 sold cars, which is more by 33% than in the previous year. Then Renault follows - cars of this brand were chosen by 12,128 buyers (+ 11%). The fifth largest leader is still Volkswagen, whose sales were 9,025 cars (+ 27%). The TOP-10 of the best-selling brands in May included also Toyota (8616 units, + 9%), Skoda (5973 units, + 20%), Nissan (5941 units, + 3%), GAZ (4675 units, + 7%) and Ford (3701 units, -6%).