After more than tripling to 47% in 2023, Chinese cars accounted for more than 50% of Russian passenger car sales in the first half of this year, surpassing Russia to become the department with the largest market share.
A few days ago, Autostat, a Russian auto industry analyst, said that Chinese car brands sold 417500 vehicles in Russia in the first half of the year, accounting for 58%.
As we all know, since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, foreign car companies such as Korean, Japanese and French, which once had a large share of the Russian car market, have withdrawn one after another, causing the country’s new car market sales to plummet.
At the same time, a large number of Chinese car brands are pouring in rapidly, filling in the gap in the market.
Thanks to the joint efforts of Russian and Chinese cars, and with the strong support of the government, after plummeting to a recent low of 687000 in 2022, new passenger car sales in Russia returned to more than one million in 2023.
Sales in the market continued to jump 79.
1% to 719000 vehicles in the first half of this year compared with the same period a year earlier, according to PPK JSC.
As a result, it is estimated that the country’s car market will reach about 1.
5 million vehicles this year.
Recently, the European Manufacturers Association AEB also raised its forecast for this year from 1.
3 million to 1.
45 million.
This means that the Russian new car market will basically return to its normal level this year.
China accounts for eight seats in the top ten, what is the real situation in the Russian market in the first half of the year, and which Chinese brands have a strong momentum and contribute more to more than half of the share? First of all, it must be noted that after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, some car brands only reported quarterly sales to AEB, while some no longer provided sales at all, resulting in the agency’s statistics unable to accurately reflect the real situation of the market, and this year, the agency no longer publishes brand data, only overall sales.
At present, the main data quoted is from another organization, PPK JSC, which is based on the number of new car sales to car owners, with high accuracy, and generally only publishes the top 10 of the respective sales of brands and models, as well as the overall market sales.
Although the data is incomplete, a lot of key information can still be obtained from some of the data published by PPK JSC.
For example, in the top 10 list of brand sales in the first half of the year, Russia’s Lada continued to top the list with 207000 vehicles, and eight of the other nine seats were Chinese brands, with the only exception Belgee being a joint venture between Belarus and Geely.
Specifically, although Lada is the only brand in the top 10 with sales of more than 100,000, an increase of 54.
1% over the same period last year, its growth significantly lags behind 79.
1% of the overall market.
And behind the seemingly glorious scene, Lada’s market share narrowed to 28.
8% in the first half of the year, far less than the 33.
5% in the same period last year.
This can also be confirmed in the top 10 of model sales, with Lada’s three best-selling cars, the Granta, Vesta and NIVA Travel, only the Vesta remained strong in the first half of the year, while the other two showed signs of fatigue.
In particular, Granta, which has dominated the top selling title in the Russian market for many years, sold only slightly more in the first half of this year than in the same period last year.
While most of the Chinese brands on the list are still making great strides.
For example, Harvard, whose annual sales in the country exceeded 100000 for the first time in 2023, sold 82000 vehicles in the first half of this year, a sharp increase of 111.
3% compared with the same period last year.
If nothing happens, Harvard’s total sales this year are likely to reach about 150000 or more.
In addition to the first love of popular models on the list, the M6 and Big Dog are also important models for Harvard, selling 17000 and 11000 respectively in the first half of the year, with the latter up 240 per cent from a year earlier.
Like Harvard, Geely’s sales in Russia more than doubled to 69000 in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, and there is a good chance that it will cross the threshold of 100000 for the first time this year.
Although Belgee is the first domestic brand in Belarus, the models are all from Geely.
For example, the Belgee X50, which is mainly sold at present, is Geely colorful.
Chang’an, which ranked fifth, had the largest increase among the eight Chinese brands, with an increase of 455.
9% over the same period last year, an increase of nearly 40,000 vehicles compared with the same period last year.
The reason for such a large increase in Chang’an is that although Chang’an has been in Russia for many years, it has always been small, with monthly sales of only three digits in and before 2022, and did not begin to grow explosively until 2023, with annual sales exceeding 10,000 for the first time and hitting an all-time high of 48000.
In the first half of this year, the sales volume of Chang’an is nearly 1,000 higher than that of the whole of last year, which shows its momentum.
Correspondingly, Changan CS55 PLUS, which entered the top 10 best-selling models, also increased by 837.
3% compared with the same period last year.
In addition, the performances of Omenda, Jetta and Jaecoo are also very eye-catching.
For example, the Omenda C5 sold nearly 20,000 vehicles, and sales in June and the first half of the year increased by thousands of times year-on-year because the shortcut only officially entered the Russian market in July last year, and the early paving volume was very low in the first half of the year.
It is worth mentioning that Chery, Omenda, Xingtuo, Jetway and Jaecoo all come from the same car group, Chery Automobile, which sold 144000 vehicles in the first half of the year, equivalent to 20 per cent of the Russian market alone.
The road ahead is still fraught with difficulties.
In addition to the above brands, which other brands are also sold in Russia, and which are independent brands? First of all, according to the top 10 data of PPK JSC brand sales in each month in the first half of this year, only Kia, Toyota, ideal and tanks were on the list.
Asia and Israel ranked 10th with 1299 vehicles since January, Toyota ranked 10th with 1634 vehicles in February, and Toyota ranked 10th with 1634 vehicles in February.
The ideal is to be on the list for the first quarter with 1733, 2691 and 3617 respectively, and tanks appear at the bottom of the list with 1741 2031 and 2409 in January, February and April, respectively.
Obviously, the above four appear almost alternately in the top 10 sales, and they are not stable, and then they are replaced by Belgee, shortcut and Jaecoo.
Thanks to the increase in production capacity, the increase in dealer network and the number of models, sales of Belgee, Jetta and Jaecoo have risen rapidly, reaching more than 2500 in the first two months of March and more than 3000 since April, while with the launch of its second model, the JAECOO J8, in April, the Jaecoo made its debut with 2292 in May and continued to increase to 2415 in June.
As a result, it can be speculated that the sales of Kia and Toyota, as well as tanks and ideals, can only reach a maximum of more than 2000 in the past two months, which is simply not comparable to the three latecomers who are on the rise.
In fact, there is a good chance that Kia and Toyota can only maintain the level of more than a thousand vehicles.
As for those who failed toThere are countless brands that appear on the top ten list.
For example, Moskvich, Evolute, Xcite, Solaris, BMW, Volkswagen, Jetta, BAIC, Pentium, Haima, Hongqi, Kaiyi, Livan, Sway, Oula, WEY, AITO, Dongfeng Fengxing, Feifan, Qichen, Lantu, GAC, JAC, Skyworth, BYD, Krypton, MG and Sinotruk VGV, the first three of which are all local Russian brands (The latter two are the labeling of Chinese models), Solaris is the replacement of Hyundai Kia, while MG and Sinotruk VGV entered the Russian market at the end of June and early July respectively.
In addition, it is reported that Nezha is also preparing to enter the Russian market.
It should be noted that although Russia has become the largest market for my country’s passenger car exports, and brands such as Great Wall, Chery and Geely have indeed made a lot of profits from it, there is actually no need to flock here so much, especially for electric brands.
This is even more so.
At present, the demand of Russian consumers is still mainly concentrated on fuel vehicles, and the electric vehicle market is very small.
Autostat data shows that a total of 10,923 electric vehicles were sold in Russia in the first half of the year, accounting for only 2% of passenger cars.
It is worth noting that after setting a record high of 2,499 vehicles in March, sales of electric vehicles in Russia have continued to decrease since April, with 2,237 vehicles, 1,096 vehicles and 1,071 vehicles respectively in the past three months.
The outstanding performance of the electric vehicle market in March was due to the fact that Russia began to impose a luxury tax on luxury electric vehicles selling for more than a certain amount starting from April 1.
The specific amount needs to be calculated separately based on the power and usage time of the car.
For this reason, a large number of consumers will rush to buy electric vehicles before April.
And for the first time, the policy includes new Chinese electric and hybrid vehicles.
The introduction of this policy will inevitably affect the sales of higher-priced electric vehicles, such as Lantu, Ideal, Hongqi and BYD.
This should also be the reason why Ideal will not be able to rank among the top ten brands in sales again after April.
, To sum up, it can be seen that although Chinese brands account for more than half of the Russian market, in fact, in the face of the arrival of more and more competing products and the tightening of policies, it has become increasingly difficult to get a piece of the pie.
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