Russia Vehicles Market 2015 fell 35% at only 1.6 million. Government ensures sustain to the 2016 market in order to contain next year lost within the 5% waiting for a recovery in the 2017. Hyundai Group is gaining space.
Economic Outlook
More complete data provided further evidence that the recession bottomed out in Q2 2015 and began to show signs of stabilization in Q3. GDP decreased 4.1% year-on-year in Q3 following the 4.6% plunge in Q2, which marked the worst contraction in six years. The main elements behind Q3’s relative improvement were a good performance in the agricultural sector and a stabilization in the industrial sector.
Further signs of improvement in the industrial sector were observed in Q4: the pace of contraction in industrial production softened for the sixth consecutive month in November. That said, industrial production remains depressed and a quick recovery is not in the cards for the coming months.
Heading into 2016, business activity in the Russian manufacturing and services sectors was disappointing as both sectors’ PMIs fell in December; this signals that activity was poor at the end of year.
Market Outlook
According to data released by the AEB, the Association of European Businesses in Russia, in December domestic car sales had been 146.963, down 45.7% from the correspondent month last, scoring the 33rd year-on-year fall out of the last 36 months.
In the entire 2015 sales had been 1.601.773, down 35.7% from the previous year or 889.397 units.
Russian vice president A. Dvorkovichhas recently stated that the vehicle market will shrink by only 5% in 2016, thanks to 40 billion rubles government support. The sales figures of 2015 may even be maintained, in case the support is risen to 50 billion rubles. The vice president has thus commented on Rossiya24 channel: “We have allocated over 40 billion rubles, in order to support automotive in 2015. By this means, the predicted 50% annual shrinkage rate has remained below 30%. This is not a figure to be glad about, however, we have managed to prevent a catastrophic decline and save the factories, production lines and employment, in general terms.” “Our duty for next year is to stop the decline in production completely. Therefore, we will continue with the support programmes, at least matching the amount spent in 2015. On the other hand, we are working on raising the allocated amount from 43 billion rubles to 50 billion rubles.”
In the 2015 Lada sold 269.086 vehicles (-30.5% with market share at 16.8%. Behind, Kia sold 163.500 units (-16.4%) and Hyundai 161.091 (-9.9%) both gaining share.
Renault ranked fourth with 120.411 units (-38.1%), losing 1 spot from the previous year and was followed by Toyota with 98.149 (-39.4%), Volkswagen with 84.097 ( -40.2%) and Nissan with 91.100 (-43.8%).
Renault-Nissan led the groups ranking with 32.3% of market share ahead of Hyundai group with 20.3% and Volkswagen with 10.3%.
The best-selling model was the Lada Granta with 120.182 units (-14.0%) ahead of the Hyundai Solaris with 115.868 (+1.1%), the Kia Rio with 97.097 (+3.7%), the Volkswagen Polo with 45.390 (-23.0%), the Gaz Gazelle with 44.411 (-30.7% and the Renault Duster with 43.923 (-42.6%).
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models
