Coming Off Record 2012, Russia Sales Up 5% in January

Russian new-vehicle sales start the year up 5% with January deliveries totaling 162,077 units, the Association of European Businesses automobile manufacturers committee says.

Committee Chairman Joerg Schreiber says while the Russian market grew to record levels last year, the second half was characterized by growing signs of consolidation. Last month’s result, he says, is therefore very encouraging.

“We see that customer activity is picking up across the industry as a response to attractive price offers and shorter delivery time for a wide variety of models,” Schreiber says in a statement.

“The spring selling season is just beginning, and February and March will show where the journey goes for the market in 2013. But so far, so good.”

The locally produced Lada continued its market domination with January sales rising 3% year-on-year to 30,037 units, ahead of Renault, jumping 35% to 14,741 and Hyundai, increasing 11% to 11,306.

Chevrolet finished the month in seventh place, as deliveries fell 2% to 9,542 units, while Ford was ninth, slipping 3% to 6,364. General Motors’ Opel subsidiary ranked No.11 with an 18% improvement to 5,211.

Driven by Lada, the AvtoVAZ-Renault-Nissan alliance boosted its market share in January to 33.5% from 33.3% year-ago, with deliveries gaining 6% to 54,328 units.

Volkswagen Group followed with sales rising 5% to 17,217 units for 10.6% of the market, ahead of the GM Group, whose 4% increase gave it a 9.2% share.

The Lada Granta was Russia’s top-selling model with sales surging 438% year-on-year to 10,589 units, ahead of the Hyundai Solaris, up 3% to 7,353 and Lada Kalina, tumbling 29% to 6,016.

The Lada Priora, the country’s best-selling car in 2012, stumbled out of the gate in January with a 51% year-over-year plunge to 3,674 that left it in ninth place.

The Ford Focus ranked No.7 with sales dropping 13% to 4,384 units.