Russian vehicle sales plunged 20% last month, adding to a woeful set of results this year, although business association, AEB, says there is light at the end of the tunnel.
September saw sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia drop 20.1% compared with 12 months ago or by 49,662 sold units and amounted to just 197, 233 cars, according to the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee (AEB AMC).
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From January to September this year, new car and LCV sales declined by 13% or 266,753 items in comparison to the same period the previous year.
Some 1,779,947 cars have been sold so far in 2014.
Among the top ten best-selling models of passenger cars, ten are produced in Russia.
“September sales show a visible improvement over August, reflecting the end of the holiday season and quarter-closing efforts by the market participants,” said AEB EMC chairman, Joerg Schreiber.
“Industry baseline performance however remains weak, demonstrated in the ongoing significant volume erosion compared to prior year. Until year end, the negative sales trend should be mitigated somewhat as a result of government measures in support of domestic vehicle production.
“We do not expect however a fundamental trend reversal for the total market during the fourth quarter of the year.
“Considering also the weaker than expected market performance in the third quarter, we are
maintaining our full-year outlook for the sales of PC and LCV in 2014 at a level of 2.45m units, equivalent to a 12% drop compared to 2013 result of 2.77m units.”
Russia recently introduced a four-month automotive scrappage scheme designed to boost the market by around 170,000 vehicles.
