Russia Sales Remain Down, But Incentives Offer Near-Term Hope

The leaves may be turning as the summer selling season ends, but there’s still no sign of a turn in the Russian vehicle market.

September deliveries dropped 10.9% year-on-year to 125,568 units, leaving the 9-month total down 14.4% at 1,020,932.

Releasing the figures, Association of European Businesses Automobile Manufacturers Committee Chairman Joerg Schreiber says the market finally has crossed the 1 million-unit threshold.

“This is maybe not quite what we had hoped for at this point, but (it is) more than some pessimists had predicted for the whole year,” Schreiber says in a statement.

“Pace of sales in the remaining months of the year will depend on whether customers believe that state-sponsored purchase incentives…will run out soon or not,” he adds.

“Those who see a deadline looming may want to accelerate their purchase decision. And if this is the thinking of the majority, new-car demand will go up in the short term.”

Indeed, amid all the red ink in the month’s results, there were a number of manufacturers venturing into the black.

Lada continued to lead the market in September, rising 5% to 22,837 units, ahead of Hyundai, down 6% (14,200), and Kia, off 17% (13,398).

Toyota led a gaggle of manufacturers in returning to the positive side, with deliveries for the month jumping 18% to 8,419 units.

However, the tense political situation between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union saw Ford sales slide 27% to 3,515 units for a 9-month total down 17% at 30,931.

Chevrolet fared even worse, plunging 56% to 1,890 units and a year-to-date total off 45% at 22,063.

With three quarters of the year completed, Lada was down 7% at 189,852 units, followed by Kia, down 11% (106,708), and Hyundai, off 15% (101,238).

The AvtoVAZ-Renault-Nissan alliance came close to breaking even, with September sales off just 0.1% at 41,785 units. This left the group down 13.0% for the year on 339,451 deliveries.

The VW Group saw sales dip 3.5% to 13,981 units for the month and 5.4% year-to-date to 113,834.

Kia’s Rio fell 25.9% to 8,014 units, but still topped the model table, ahead of Lada’s Granta, down 9.1% (7,851), and Hyundai’s Solaris, off 41.0% (6,498).

Chevrolet’s Niva was the best American-brand performer, down 35.3% at 1,829, ranking it No.20 in the market.

The Solaris leads model sales for the year to date, down 22.1% at 66,602 units. Granta follows, down 29.6% (63,622), ahead of Rio, off 13.1% (62,278).