AEB: Russia’s new car, LCV sales fall 20% to 126,466 units in Nov

MOSCOW, Dec 6 (PRIME) -- Sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in Russia fell 20.4% on the year to 125,466 units in November, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said on Monday in a statement.

In January–November, sales of new cars and LCVs grew 6.9% on the year to 1.439 million vehicles.

Sales of Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVAZ shrank 31% to 26,373 cars in November, while grew 6% to 320,795 cars in January–November.

Thomas Staertzel, Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, said as cited in the statement that the November downward trend will continue in December despite it is usually a good month for car sales, and the figures will be even worse in the coming months.

In addition to the negative market factors, such as production decrease, deficit of semiconductors, and logistics problems, the government initiated a draft order that envisages an almost nine-fold increase of the disposal fee for electric vehicles. Coupled with the announced non-extension of the zero import duty on such cars this will substantially undermine the market segment, Staertzel said.

The measure was not discussed with the industry, and it will raise prices for end-customers, slow down sales of electric cars, and slow down the development of the charging infrastructure, he added.

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