Sales of new cars in Russia were up 25% year on year to 206,873 vehicles in February and the top 10 passenger cars were all locally built, according to the Association of European Businesses (AEB).
January and February sales were up 23%.
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AEB chairman David Thomas said: “The encouraging start to 2012 continues with 25% growth for the month following January’s 20% increase. A 23% year to date increase is better than anticipated in the last forecast but, as the first two months in the Russian market are subject to vacations and the impact of closing stocks, it is too early to revise our full year view of 2.8m passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.”
Thomas added, “Once we have the March results, we will have a clearer picture of the overall market trend.”
The AEB forecast car sales to rise 12% to 2.8m units in 2012, close to the 2.9m achieved before the recession in 2008.
