UPDATE: AEB: Russia’s new car, LCV sales fall 18% in October

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MOSCOW, Nov 8 (PRIME) -- Russia’s sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) fell 18.1% on the year to 126,200 units in October, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said in a statement on Monday.

In January–October, sales of new cars and LCVs grew 10.5% on the year to 1.3 million units.

Chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee Thomas Staertzel said, as quoted in the statement, “October is the 4th month in a row when the market has been decreasing. …There is still a long way to overcome the global production shortage and new problems with logistics due to breaks of the supply chains.”

The battery electric vehicle (BEV) segment of the Russian market continues to grow, as 845 such cars have been sold in Russia since the start of 2021, an increase of 118% on the year, the association also said.

The AEB believes that discontinuation of zero import duties on electric cars will lead to an increase in the cost of electric cars, a decrease in consumer demand and subsequent stagnation in sales dynamics.

Staertzel said, as quoted in the statement, “This positive development could be significantly undermined by a non-prolongation of 0-import customs duty for BEVs during the next years with then BEV prices increase, leading to decline of customer demand and respective stagnation of the BEV sales dynamic.”

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