Citizens prefer spending on basic goods for fear of the repercussions of the war (Getty)
Simultaneously with the start Russian military operation In Ukraine and increasing indicators of its prolongation, recorded New car sales In Russia, the biggest collapse since April 2020, which witnessed the peak of the total closure measures once morest the background of the start of the expansion of the Corona virus pandemic.
But this time, this huge decline is due to the announcement of a number of international car manufacturers, including “Mercedes”, “BMW”, “General Motors” and others, in addition to the rise in prices due to the collapse of the ruble exchange rate to its lowest historical level when the process began military, before returning by today to its pre-war levels.
Data from the European Business Association indicate that sales of American, European and Japanese cars in the Russian market fell by more than 60% last March, due to the lack of new car supplies and high prices.
And the Business Association said in a statement reported by Russian media this week that sales of new light and commercial cars fell in March by 62.9 percent compared to the same month last year, to 55,129 cars.
This is slightly better than the rates in April 2020, when the number of people infected with corona in Russia was on the rise. According to the data of the same association, the Russian car market recorded a decline of 72.4%, as distributors were unable to sell only 38,922 cars. This decline was the largest in the history of the association’s monitoring.
And sales of American, European and Japanese cars almost stopped in March due to the lack of new supplies, while prices at car shows increased by several times.
In this context, the director of the Russian “Avtostat” agency for analyzing the car market, Sergey Tsilikov, expects a decline in the Russian car market by no less than a third this year at best, following the car market in Russia ranked 11th in the world last year.
Tsilikov told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “In 2021, 1.54 million new light cars were sold, an increase of 3% compared to 2020. In terms of financial value, the Russians spent regarding 3 trillion rubles (more than 40 billion dollars according to the exchange rate prevailing at the time). ), an increase of approximately 22% compared to the year 2020.
Tsilikov expects new transportation sales to decline by 21% during the first quarter of this year, citing Avtostat estimates, which expects car sales to decline by 35% for the whole of this year in the event that an optimistic scenario or even worse is achieved, depending on the developments of the military operation. in Ukraine and its repercussions.
Experts of the trading platform “Bank Avto” attributed this unprecedented collapse to a number of reasons, including the unwillingness of distributors to sell cars even when there are reserves in stock for many models, because there is no data on subsequent supplies from car manufacturers.
In these circumstances, car dealerships set prices that include exaggerated profit margins ranging between 30% and 70% above normal prices, in addition to the increase in interest rates on car loans following the Russian Central Bank raised the basic interest rate from 9.5% to 20% at once. At the end of last February, these factors collectively led to a sharp decline in demand, not even the Russian national Lada cars, which recorded a 64% drop in sales.
In addition to cars, the Russian market may face a shortage of tires, in light of the season of replacing winter tires with summer ones this year, with a number of foreign manufacturers announcing the suspension of their work in Russia.
According to data reported by the Russian newspaper “Kommersant”, yesterday, Thursday, the reserves of light car tires in Russia amounted to regarding 61 million pieces. However, the newspaper pointed out that these precautions will suffice for a period ranging between 11 and 17 months in the event that demand remains at the level of 2021.
And since the ruble’s collapse has led to a rise in the prices of imported goods, smartphone sales have also doubled from 744,000 pieces per week in mid-February to regarding 380,000 pieces in mid-March, following their prices rose. At rates ranging between 30% and 50%, amid questions regarding whether prices will return to their previous levels following the ruble’s recovery.
