Russia’s LV Sales Slump Decelerates in August

The Russian auto industry may be seeing an amber light at the end of the tunnel with August sales easing to a 19.4% decline year-on-year to 138,670 units.

The Association of European Businesses Automobile Manufacturers Committee says the result was an improvement on July’s 27.5% tumble and left the year-to-date total down 33.5% at 1,051,851 units.

Committee Chairman Joerg Schreiber is cautiously optimistic.

“The pace of year-on-year sales decline slowed down further in August, suggesting the market is moving closer to finding some sort of equilibrium at a new, lower level,” Schreiber says in a statement.

“This may not happen too soon however, as currency fluctuations continue to have an enormous impact on day-to-day consumer behavior and demand for high-value goods such as cars.”

The latest sharp drop in the value of the ruble guarantees the market will see an immediate uplift in sales, only to be followed by a corresponding slump, says Schreiber, also president and general manager of Mazda Russia.

Home-grown Lada continued to lead the sales table with an August result down 24% year-on-year at 20,174 units. Kia dropped just 3.2% to 14,081 units, ahead of Hyundai, down 6.2% at 12,584.

With 8 months of the year under the hood, Lada had a comfortable sales lead, down 26% at 181,804 units. Hyundai followed, down 11.2% at 104,279, with Kia off 15.7% at 103,642.

Among U.S. automakers, seventh-place Chevrolet fell 16.3% in August to 6,655 deliveries and No.9 Ford slipped 17.5% to 4,527.

The AvtoVAZ-Renault-Nissan group saw a 20.7% drop in August deliveries to 40,024 units, giving it an 8-month result down 27.3% at 348,491.

The Volkswagen Group was off 29.1% at 13,468 units, and for the year it was down 27.3% at 248,490.

The General Motors group of Chevrolet, Opel and Cadillac dropped 27.3% to 8,966 units and backslid 60.3% year-to-date to 49,759.

Within the group, along with Chevrolet, Opel was down 48.1% in August to 2,248 units and off 68.3% year-to-date at 13,570, while Cadillac edged up to 63 units from 60 in July, but was down 26.5% after 8 months at 623 units.

Hyundai’s Solaris remained the best-selling model in August with deliveries up 16.5% at 10,581 units. Lada’s Granta followed, down 23.5% at 9,070 units, with Kia’s new Rio closing the gap on a 49.8% rise to 8,989.

Year-to-date, the Granta continued to lead, down 14.1% at 81,748 deliveries, while the Solaris saw a 96-unit uptick to 74,534. The New Rio edged up 1.3% to 60,828 units.