In April, Russians bought only 54.5K new cars, which is three times less than in March when 160.6K new cars found owners, according to the Avtostat news and analytics agency.
The negative trend has a very simple explanation, according to Avtostat COO Sergei Udalov.
“In April, all sales effectively stopped. As concerns market recovery, it will definitely not happen fast, including due to the decreasing demand and potential customers’ shrinking income. I assume that within the next few months we will be witnessing a 30% to 50% decline in sales,” the expert commented for Invest Foresight.
If we look at the year-on-year decline, the sales dropped by over 60% for the majority of car manufacturers compared to April 2019, including LADA (-64%), Renault (-63%), Volkswagen (-65%), Skoda (-64%), Nissan (-66%) and Mitsubishi (-65%).
Therefore, according to the statistics for the first four months of 2020, the general decline in sales for new cars is 9.5%.
The used car market also experienced a downturn in April, even if slightly less drastic. Russians purchased 50% less used cars, a total of 251.8K.