80% of new cars in Russia are now Chinese

Imports to Russia of new cars (up to three years) fell from a record 25,000 per month in January-February 2022 to about 8,000 in July, said Sergey Tselikov, CEO of Avtostat. At the same time, it is interesting that the share of new cars that were imported into the country not by official dealers, but by individuals, has significantly increased. If at the beginning of the year it was 2-3%, now it has practically increased tenfold - up to 20%, and amounted to 1,600 cars in July. Experts have already called this phenomenon "parallel car imports." They point out that Russian laws practically do not allow legal entities to import a new car.

In the first quarter of this year, about 43,000 new foreign cars were imported to Russia, more than half of which were produced in Europe. Today, their share is less than 2%. Approximately the same amount is imported from Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and Japan, and a little less from Armenia and Belarus.

In the second quarter of this year, 27 thousand new foreign cars were imported into the country, of which Chinese brands account for 81%, while in the first quarter they were almost three times less - 28%.

Three Chinese brands: Chery, Exeed (also a Chery concern) and Jeely accounted for more than two-thirds of automotive imports, while Korean brands accounted for only 7%. Thus, the long-standing forecast of the outstanding contemporary Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin came true: Russia is completely transplanted to the products of the Chinese automobile industry.

At the same time, the import of used (older than 3 years) cars is logically growing, and 99% of them are now imported by individuals. In total, for 7 months of this year, sales of new cars in Russia decreased by 60%.