Car sales in Russia have plummeted amid the fuel crisis
The Russian auto market has begun to shrink sharply amid fuel shortages. Between June 22 and 28, 25,900 new passenger cars were sold in Russia, a 16.2% decrease from the previous week.
The decline came after several months of gradual market recovery. Starting in March, new car sales had been growing steadily, but the trend reversed at the end of June.
The decline in sales also affected the commercial vehicle segment. Over the week, sales of light commercial vehicles fell by 10% to 1,338 units. Truck sales fell by 15.6% to 1,010 vehicles. Year-over-year, LCV sales declined by 19.2%, while truck sales fell by 6.6%.
Sergey Tselikov, head of Autostat, cited the fuel crisis as one of the reasons for the drop in sales and suggested that its impact could intensify in the second half of the year. Alexey Podshchekoldin, head of the Russian Dealers Association, also stated that the gasoline crisis is already affecting the market. According to him, some customers are postponing their car purchases until the end of summer, waiting to see how the fuel situation develops.
An Autostat survey showed that more than a third of Russian motorists have started using their own cars less frequently. At the same time, some consumers are considering electric and hybrid vehicles as alternatives to cars with internal combustion engines.
This is reported by Russian media.
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