Russians bought 297 luxury cars from January to March 2020, up 10% from the same period last year, according to Autostat analytical agency’s demand data.
The most popular car among wealthy Russians was the Mercedes-Benz Maybach S-Class, as 129 buyers chose that make. The Maybach S-Class accounted for almost half (40%) of all luxury vehicles bought in January-March.
Other luxury cars that enjoyed popularity over that period included Bentley (66 cars), Rolls-Royce (40 cars), as well as Italian luxury auto classics such as Lamborghini (34), Maserati (22) and four Ferraris. In addition, Russian motorists acquired two Aston Martin cars.
Geographically, Moscow and the Moscow Region were predictably ahead of other Russian regions. Six out of 10 purchases were made in the Russian capital – a total of 178 vehicles. St. Petersburg was in second place, also quite predictably, with 28 luxury segment cars bought by the city’s residents; the Krasnodar Territory closed the top three with 15 deals.
The top three were followed, in descending order of the number of deals, by the Sverdlovsk Region (6), the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Rostov and Ryazan Regions (3 each). Four regions (the Republics of Komi and Tatarstan, the Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov Regions) recorded two luxury car purchases each, and one expensive car each was acquired in 17 other regions.
The dynamics of luxury car sales are changing with the market, automotive expert Igor Morzharetto commented on the statistics.
“Only, these dynamics are more pronounced, I mean, if the market falls, say, by 20%, the luxury segment shrinks by 10%. For an economy class buyer, every RUR 1K ($13.5) counts and can affect the decision to buy; but in the luxury segment, even a RUR 100K ($1,350) difference is not big enough to affect the final decision to buy the car,” the expert explained.