Otkritie Avto: in May, Russian customers spent a third less on new cars than in April - 51.5 billion rubles

Otkritie Avto (an auto business block in Otkritie Bank)* and AUTOSTAT analytic agency conducted a joint research of the new passenger car market in Russia and estimated its financial capacity** in May 2022. According to the research, in the last spring month, Russian customers splurged 51.5 billion rubles on the car purchases. This is 32% less than a month earlier (75.9 billion rubles in April), and 81% less than in May 2021 (269 billion rubles). At the same time, 21.6 thousand new vehicles were sold in May 2022, which is 27% less than in April (29.6 thousand vehicles).

The expenses of Russian customers for the vehicle purchase have been constantly decreasing since the beginning of the year. Residents of our country traditionally spend the most money on crossovers and SUVs, whose share in the financial capacity of the market increased up to 64% in May (62% in April). As for the countries of the brands origin, the leaders are Korean manufactures, which managed to leave Europeans brands behind. In May, Russian customers spent more money on Chinese brands than on domestic ones. We should also mention the continuing decline in the share of premium vehicles in the financial structure, which reduced to 17% in May (compared to 26% in April). The share of SUV segment increased. In May, Russian customers bought 11.1 thousand new SUVs for 32.9 billion rubles. Thus, crossovers and SUVs generated 51% in term of numbers and 64% in terms of money. Comparing these figures with April, both grew by 2% (previously 49% and 62%, respectively).

The second place in the Russian automotive market is still occupied by B-class vehicles. 7.6 thousand new such cars for 9.8 billion rubles were sold in May. The share of this segment was 35% in terms of sales and 19% in terms of money. A month earlier, these figures were 37% and 19%, respectively. In May, sales and financial capacity decreased in all segments of the market compared to April.

** Financial capacity - the amount of money that Russian customer spent on the new passenger cars during the period under review. Calculated on the basis of the average new car prices and their sales for the month under review.