The Russian car market showed a 2.3% decline last year, according to the Association of European Businesses.
The forecast for 2020 is no better: the Russian auto business is expected to sink by another 2.1%. The plan is to sell 1.72 mio cars and SUVs – this is even less than last year. In 2019, 1.76 mio passenger vehicles were sold.
Experts note that the market has reached its ceiling, so further stimulation of demand is unlikely to work. Boosting car sales will require economic growth, which would lead to higher incomes, Kommersant writes.
Additional measures of state support are also needed to increase demand, such as preferential car loans; in 2019, the government provided such loans for the purchase of Russian-made Lada cars.