Press-release 03.20

AUTOMOBILE MARKET OF RUSSIA IN MARCH AND JANUARY-MARCH 2020

In March 2020, sales of new MOTOR VEHICLES in Russia, based on registration data, grew by 19.5% year-on-year to 173 816 vehicles. In the first quarter of 2020 the total sales were 414 788 vehicles*, up 14.4% year-on-year, of which:

• Passenger cars – 157 979 units in March 2020, up 22.6% YOY; 368 956 units in January-March 2020, up 16.2% YOY.
• Light commercial vehicles including light trucks (N1 category, without pickups) and minibuses (M2 category) – 8 188 units in March 2020, up 0.9% YOY; 22 342 units in January-March 2020, up 0.6% YOY.
• Pickups – 1 236 units in March 2020, up 23.0% YOY; 3 377 units in January-March 2020, up 12.5% YOY.
• Trucks (except N1 category) including special-purpose vehicles – 5 295 units in March 2020, down 19.0% YOY; 16 665 units in January-March 2020, down 2.8% YOY.
• Buses (except М2 category) – 1 118 units in March 2020, up 18.3% YOY; 3 448 units in January-March 2020, up 29.9% YOY.

*without sales to military, law enforcement and diplomatic agencies in RF

COMMENT:

Alexander Kovrigin, Deputy Managing Director of ASM Holding, commented:
Sales of new cars grew 22.6% in March and 16.2% in the first quarter of 2020. This growth took place, first of all, because the consumers expecting a further car price hike due to a fall of the exchange rate of rouble decided to no more postpone a car purchase. In the April results, we expect a significant decline of car sales unless a decision is taken on the government’s level to resume activities of dealerships.
The truck market declined in March and in the first three months of the year by 19% and 2.8% respectively. The situation on the market should get aligned, and what we note now is a temporary decline. However, the sales results in April are also questionable given idled dealerships engaged in truck sales. Should the sales resume, we could expect a growth of truck and LCV sales on the account of purchases financed from the state budget. Such vehicles are required for solution of the situation provoked by spread of the COVID-19 over the territory of Russia, namely construction of hospitals, development of infrastructure, purchase of ambulances, etc.
The bus market showed growth of sales by 18.3% in March and 29.9% in Q1 2020. The growth should continue because of the planned renewal of regional bus fleets.

Press-release 03.20 ENG.pdf (application/pdf, 1.09 Mb)