OREANDA-NEWS  In March 2023, sales of new passenger and commercial vehicles in Russia decreased to 48,414 units (minus 10.6 percent year-on-year). This is reported by Forbes with reference to the Association of European Business (AEB).

The drop in sales volume for the first quarter was 44.7 percent — from January to March, 153,477 cars were sold (down by 123,855). During this time, 14,922 commercial vehicles, 87,109 SUVs, 1,457 pickups and 276 electric vehicles were purchased.

A decrease of 10.6 percent is the minimum for the year. In January 2023, car sales decreased by 63.1 percent compared to last year's figures, and in February — by 62 percent. At the same time, in February the number of cars sold by 62 percent, and in March — by 49 percent more than in January.

At the same time, Russian Lada cars became the market leader: in March, dealers sold 23,335 commercial and passenger cars (plus 90 percent year-on-year). Sales of AvtoVAZ increased by 22 percent in three months, to 64,240 cars. According to the president of AvtoVAZ Maxim Sokolov, the company's share among all cars sold by the end of 2022 increased to 27.9 percent.

At the same time, sales of Chinese brands Haval and Geely increased by 331 and 243 percent year-on-year. In March, they sold 6,780 and 5,119 cars, respectively. Lesser—known brands: Changan began to be sold by 1264 percent more often (1517 pieces), and Great Wall cars - by 1264 percent (450 pieces).

Earlier, the association "Russian Automobile Dealers" (ROAD) warned that in 2023 Russia is waiting for a rapid growth in sales of Chinese cars. Their market share will almost double, from 18 to 32 percent. Dealers predict that 250 thousand such cars will be sold in Russia by the end of the year (124.6 thousand were bought in the country a year earlier). Russian Lada cars will remain the leaders — their sales will amount to 440 thousand units, or about 55 percent of the total. Foreign cars with parallel imports will retain only 13 percent of the market (100 thousand cars).