In a recent report by the Russian ‘Autostat Analytic Agency’, more than 38 percent of new car sales in Russia were made up of Chinese automotive brands.
This above is a sharp increase from just one year ago when, from January to February 2022, Chinese brands made up less than 10 percent of all new car sales.
The Customs Bureau of the Russian Federation report also shows that new car sales in Russia dropped by 59 percent yearly in 2022 to 623,000 cars, of which nearly 30 percent accounted for Russian brands. In second came Korean brands which accounted for 19.5 percent of total sales.
Moreover, Chinese brands ranked in the top three steadily, accounting for 19.2 percent while European manufacturers accounted for 18.5 percent. We all know that Chinese brands have suddenly become very popular as of late mainly in the electric vehicle (EV) market so will Malaysia also see Chinese brands outsell other brands?
Sergey Tselikov, head of Autostat, said, “Russian and Chinese brands are increasing their share in the Russian market. The market share of Russian brands increased from 20 percent to 41 percent in a year, while Chinese brands increased from 10 percent to 38 percent.”
“The increased share of these two countries’ automotive brands reflects the decline in the market share of other countries’ brands. But the share of Korean brands dropped from 24 percent to 9 percent, European brands from 27 percent to 6 percent, and Japanese brands from 18 percent to 6 percent.” He added.
On top of that, European, Japanese, and Korean car brands have withdrawn from the Russian market due to international sanctions and other factors, such as inflation, vehicle shortages, logistical issues and more. Russia sold about 680,000 cars domestically in 2022 compared to 1.17 million in 2021, a 41 percent decrease.
However, in early 2022, the number of Chinese brands among all car brands being sold in Russia was 33.3 percent. In 2021, that percentage was 22.4 percent. In addition to Chinese brands, the share of local Russian brands has also been rising, but not as significantly as Chinese brands, from 13 percent to 14.3 percent.
It is also worth noting that many Chinese brands have entered the Russian market, over the last year, such as Tank from Great Wall, Voyah from Dongfeng, Skywell, Omoda and Kaiyi from Chery and Hongqi from FAW and some of these brands are already in Malaysia so will we also see all of them and more soon?
