Russia introduces restrictions on parallel import of cars

From October 1st, 2023, the rules for importing cars under parallel import will change in Russia. This method of supply will be limited for brands that have not left the Russian market and continue to import officially cars, the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed to the Autonews.ru portal. Cars from brands that have left Russia can be supplied through parallel import channels at least until February 1, 2024. We are talking about a method of passing through customs with the issuance of Conclusions on the Safety of Single Vehicles (CSSV), for which the importer does not require permission from the copyright holder.

This scheme was introduced in March 2022 in order to avoid a shortage of cars and spare parts on the market after many automakers left Russia. According to market participants, parallel supplies of cars from Chinese brands, which are also officially supplied, may be at risk. We are talking, for example, about such premium models as Voyah Free, Hongqi E-HS9 or Geely Monjaro. As Wagner Auto Marketing Director Mikhail Podushko told the AUTOSTAT agency, regarding parallel imports, due to changes in certification conditions from October, some brands may, in principle, stop being supplied to the Russian Federation.

As AUTOSTAT previously reported, since May 2023, the import of cars into Russia has shown positive dynamics from month to month, but in August the import of passenger cars began to decline. Thus, at the end of summer, 71.7 thousand new passenger cars were imported into our country, while in July this figure was 80.3 thousand vehicles, experts from the AUTOSTAT agency reported, citing data from PPK JSC*. In July, the monthly maximum of imports for the last three years was noted, which experts associate with an increase in recycling tax rates on cars (which came into force on August 1). This circumstance forced importers to bring as many cars as possible before this event occurred. For eight months of 2023, 379.2 thousand new passenger cars were imported into Russia - 3.9 times more than in the same period of last year.

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