April Cruelest Month Yet for Russian LV Sales

Russia’s new-vehicle sales plunged deeper into the red in April, with deliveries down 41.5% to 132,456 units – the lowest monthly total in the 10 years the Association of European Businesses has keeping statistics.

The AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee says the result left the year-to-date total down 37.7% at 516,135 units.

Committee Chairman Joerg Schreiber says April marked a new low point in the association’s sales history over the past 10 years.

“Only in 2009 did we record a similarly weak, but slightly better, result for this month of 136,000 units,” Schreiber says in a statement. “The similarity to 2009…demonstrates the severity of the present situation.

“The dynamics of the current crisis, however, are different…this time the government responded much earlier with selective countermeasures meant to avoid an even deeper fall.

“Therefore, we do not expect year-over-year market performance to deteriorate much further,” Schreiber says. “Rather, we foresee a gradual flattening of the negative trend in the coming months.”

Lada remained the top-selling brand despite April deliveries dropping 38% to 22,859 units. Kia followed, down 22% at 13,902 units, barely ahead of Hyundai, off 14% at 13,701.

Lada’s 4-month total was down 29% at 91,413 units, ahead of Hyundai, slipping 6% to 53,542 and Kia, dropping 17% to 49,932.

Chevrolet fell 64% in April to 4,824 units for a year-to-date total down 70% at 14,572. Parent General Motors is terminating its Russian manufacturing operations and shutting down most of its sales network in the country.

Ford was off 48% for the month at 2,787 units, giving it a 4-month total down 66% at 7,847.

Lada’s Granta remained the top-selling model in April despite dropping 20.8% to 10,361 units. The Hyundai Solaris followed, down 8.0% at 8,990 units, ahead of Kia’s New Rio, off 13.5% at 7,828.

Year-to-date the order was unchanged with the Granta off 9.9% at 41,071 units, ahead of the Solaris, down 4.0% at 33,801 and New Rio, slipping 12.4% to 26,240.

Chevrolet’s Niva fell 39.6% in April to 3,009 deliveries and ninth place on the sales list. After four months the Niva ranked 13th with deliveries tumbling 37.4% to 9,715.