OREANDA-NEWS. According to the agency “Auto-Dealer-SPb”, in 2015 in St. Petersburg it was sold 124,260 new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, which is less by 35% than a year ago.

For the first time the leader of the city car market for the year was the Korean brand KIA (12691 units, -18%). The most popular brand of 2013 and 2014 - Renault - remained in the second place (12,587 units, -32%). For the first time the top-10 got the representative of the premium-class - Mercedes-Benz.

The only brand in the top-20, which is showing an increase in sales in 2015, became Hyundai (+ 5%). Also in the last year sales were increased at Lexus, Datsun, Lifan, Porsche, FAW, and Cadillac.

"Against the background of a serious decline in the market, the sales growth could be shown only by some premium brands or the cheapest brands”, - said General Director of “Auto-Dealer-SPb”, Michail Chaplygin. – “Hyundai's success became possible due to the opening in 2014 of a new dealership. In general, as it was expected, the market fell slightly more than by a third. In 2016, the fall in car sales in St. Petersburg may continue. Negative scenario – is a reduction in the sales of cars by 10%, positive - the market will remain at the same level as the last year".

In December, the best result was shown by sales of cars per one month throughout 2015. In the city it was sold 11,666 cars, which is less by 44% than in December of 2014, when he was it was set the all-time record of sales at the end of one month.

St. Petersburg share in the total volume of new passenger car sales in Russia in 2015 was 7.8% (in 2014 - 7.7%).