Near-Term Recovery Doubtful as Sales Continue to Slide in Russia

Russian new-vehicle sales dive 20.1% in September and the industry sees little chance of recovery this year.

The Association of European Businesses’ Automobile Manufacturers Committee says the month’s deliveries of just 197,233 units left the year-to-date total down 13.0% to 1,779,947.

Committee Chairman Joerg Schreiber notes September sales showed a visible improvement over August, reflecting the end of the holiday season and quarter-closing efforts by the market participants.

But he says the baseline performance remains weak, demonstrated by the ongoing significant volume erosion compared with year-ago.

“Until year-end, the negative sales trend should be mitigated somewhat as a result of government measures in support of domestic vehicle production,” Schreiber says in a statement.

Lada continued to dominate the market with September deliveries down 9% to 36,513 units for a 9-month total off 17% to 283,802.

Renault followed, down 11% to 15,406 units and sinking 10% to date to 139,434.

Rounding out the top three, Hyundai saw sales slide 10% to 15,398 units for the month and 2% for nine months to 132,849.

Chevrolet finished in eighth place as its sales plunged 49% to 8,260 units and 30% year-to-date to 89,961. Ford dropped to 12th place on a 35% dip in September deliveries to 5,268 units. Its sales for the year are off 42% to 44,938 vehicles.

The AvtoVAZ-Renault-Nissan Alliance dropped 11.1% during the month to 64,922 units and after three-quarters is down 10.3% to 544,066.

The Volkswagen Group was a distant second, down 24.1% to 19,739 units in September. Its deliveries are off 13.4% to date to 193,354.

Lada’s Granta was again the top model with September deliveries bucking the trend to rise 14.8% to 116,924 units for a 9-month total down 12.8% to 112,078.

Schreiber says the industry doesn’t expect a fundamental trend reversal for the total market during the fourth quarter.

“Considering also the weaker-than-expected market performance in the third quarter, we are maintaining our full-year outlook for the sales of passenger cars and light-commercial vehicles in 2014 at a level of 2.45 million units,” he says.

That would mark a 12% drop from 2013’s 2.77 million.