AEB: Car, LCV April sales in all-time low monthly fall of 72%

MOSCOW, May 12 (PRIME) -- Russia’s sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) plummeted by 72.4% on the year to 38,922 vehicles in April, the deepest monthly fall ever, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said on Tuesday.

In January–April, the sales of cars and LCVs decreased 19.1% to 415,102.

“After exceptionally high March sales, in April 2020, dealer operations forced to be stopped or extremely limited with the COVID-19 related lockdown situation. With a 72,4% sale decrease compared to same month last year, the Russian automotive industry experienced the strongest monthly sales decrease in the AEB statistics history,” the association said quoting Thomas Staertzel, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.

“‘Black April’ 2020 strongly challenged dealer liquidity and mid-term even their sustainability. New reality forces all of us to try different creative communication and sales formats to stay close to customers. Dealers are preparing for restart, although I do not expect much better sales results in May,” Staertzel said as quoted by the AEB.

Sales of Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVAZ plunged by 71% on the year to 9,396 cars in April and decreased 22% to 88,996 units in January–March.

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