Last year, Chinese electric car brand Polar Krypton achieved significant sales growth in Russia, with Chinese automakers taking the lead in Russia’s small but fast-growing field of electric vehicles, according to Reuters.
Polar Krypton is a high-end smart electric brand owned by Zhejiang Geely Holdings Group, which makes cars in China.
In May 2024, Polar Krypton was successfully listed on NASDAQ with a market capitalization of about $6.
8 billion.
According to Irina Frank, head of Frank-Auto dealerships in Moscow, although there is no official agent in Russia, the Chinese high-end brand extreme Krypton is still the leader in the field of electric vehicles, selling more than 8000 cars since June last year.
The polar krypton X compact SUV sells for about 4 million rubles (340000 yuan) in Russia, similar to that of European carmakers.
Vadim Merzlikin, marketing director of polar krypton, a dealer that sells polar krypton cars, said that the official entry of polar krypton cars into the Russian market will inject new impetus into this growth trend, but macroeconomic factors are also the key to market development, which mainly depends on purchasing power, competitiveness and economic situation.
At present, consumers in the Russian electric car market are mainly concentrated in the wealthier groups, with up to 40 per cent of electric car owners having charging facilities at home, Merzlikin added.
Frank said that Russian interest in electric vehicles is growing with the acceleration of the construction of charging stations, increased consumer awareness of fuel conservation and improved maintenance services for dealers.
Frank points out that although the current market share of electric vehicles in Russia is relatively small, at less than 2 per cent, a significant gap compared with China’s penetration of more than 30 per cent of electric vehicles, he predicts that by 2035, the market share of Russian electric vehicles will exceed 25 per cent.
Western carmakers have pulled out of the Russian market since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, providing an excellent opportunity for Chinese carmakers to quickly fill the market gap left by their western competitors.
Today, Chinese carmakers account for more than half of Russia’s car market. 53.1 per cent of Russians are now ready to buy Chinese cars, up from 6.
4 per cent in 2017, Merzlikin said, citing a survey by Autostat and Auto Mail.
Some governments in Europe and the United States are increasingly worried about China’s dominance in the field of electric vehicles.
Unlike these regions, however, the Russian government has chosen to embrace Chinese brands without imposing tariffs on imported cars made in China and actively introducing Chinese products to support the recovery and growth of its domestic car industry.
According to the latest data from Autostat, a Russian analyst, more than 20500 new electric vehicles were sold in Russia from may 2023 to April 2024, an astonishing increase of about 350 per cent over the previous year.
Among them, Chinese brand electric cars account for more than half of sales.
During this period, Russian carmakers sold fewer than 4000 new electric vehicles, compared with 1.
28 million for the entire passenger car market in the same period.
The development of the electric vehicle market has been hampered by the lack of a sound charging infrastructure in Russia’s vast territory and the country’s long-standing dependence on its rich oil and gas resources.
Still, Russia sold more electric cars in the past year than in the previous decade combined.
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