Russia’s Lengthy LV Sales Decline Eases in October

Russia’s new-vehicle sales drop 9.9% in October to just 211,365 units, but the industry sees this as an improvement.

The Association of European Businesses’ Automobile Manufacturers Committee says the result left the year-to-date total down 12.7% to 1,991,312 units.

“Market performance in October was anything but great; however, a step forward compared to the very weak results in recent months,” committee Chairman Joerg Schreiber says in a statement.

The reason behind the relative improvement, he says, is the combined effect of the government scrappage incentive supporting the sales of domestic models and the sharp decline of the ruble raising short-term demand for imported models.

“The stimulating impact of these two factors will be only temporary, but for now appears to be carrying sufficient momentum for delivering a further improvement in the market sales statistics for November,” Schreiber says.

The Russian government in August budgeted RR10 billion ($219 million) for the scrappage scheme through the end of the year. It predicts more than 170,000 units will be sold under the program.

The scheme helped Lada manage a 1% year-on-year uptick in deliveries to 37,484 units, but the domestic brand remained down 16% year-to-date to 321,590.

Kia was a distant second, down 1% in October to 17,392 units and was in third place for the year, down 6% to 164,595.

Renault fell 9% to 16,664 units for the month, but remained in second place year-to-date, off 10% to 173,494.

Chevrolet finished the month in eighth place with October sales skidding 37% to 9,181 units for a 10-month total down 30% to 99,142.

Ford tumbled 34% to 5,288 units in October and backslid 41% year-to-date to 50,226.

The AvtoVAZ-Renault-Nissan Alliance had one of its best performances this year with deliveries off just 0.1% in October to 68,804 units. After 10 months, the group was down 9.3% to 612,870.

Volkswagen Group was a distant second, down 15.8% for the month to 20,437 units, resulting in a year-to-date total off 13.6% to 213,719.

General Motors finished the month down 34.3% to 13,986 units and a 10-month total down 27.5% to 152,390.

Lada’s Granta, listed at RR289,000 ($6,238), remained the country’s top-selling model with October deliveries rising 25.8% to 16,807 as Russians took advantage of the scrappage program. With two months of the year left, Granta deliveries were off 9.1% to 128,885.