It seems that the Russian new car market has begun the slow recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the data provided by the Automobile Manufacturers Committee of the Association of European Businesses (AEB), in June, car sales dropped by a mere 14.6% as compared to the same period last year. In May 2020, the sales fell by 51.8%, while April showed the worst result at minus 72.4%.
Nevertheless, the June 2020 indices are still weak. That month, 112.6K cars were sold.
Most car lovers picked AvtoVAZ cars (28K cars purchased). KIA takes second place with 17K cars, followed by Hyundai with 13.4K cars.
It is noteworthy that almost all automobile concerns witnessed falling sales in June. Speaking of the top-10 can makers, Nissan and GAZ suffered the most losing 22%. Only one brand managed to increase sales: it was Skoda with a 3% growth.
Nevertheless, the AEB committee believes that as the car sales fall slows, it may mean the beginning of a slow recovery of the market, but it still will not lead to good indices for 2020.
According to the association, the market will shrink by 23.9%, to 1.3 mio new cars in 2020. But they also note that this forecast considers the expected government support of consumer demand and assumes that there would be no second wave of the coronavirus pandemic with another lockdown and frozen economic activity.