Rossiyskaya Gazeta interviewed salespeople at large dealer networks and found out that Russians are unlikely to be able to buy a car at a profit in the foreseeable future. Avilon explained that to stimulate sales, neither dealers nor automakers will be able to reduce prices, since the margin reserve “has been exhausted due to the high cost of financing and new scrappage rates.”
As of the end of January, car manufacturers’ inventories are designed for 4-5 months of sales. “If sales grow, despite the small number of prerequisites for this, then car inventories may be reduced to 3-4 months of trade,” said Renat Tyukteev, deputy general director for sales of new cars at Avilon AG. He added that the first half of the year has already been planned by 80 percent, taking into account the logistics timing of deliveries from abroad. And supply volumes for the second half of the year will be formed “in accordance with the dynamics of sales in the first four months of this year.”
Russian dealers found their warehouses full of cars BAIC SUVs fell in price in Russia: discounts up to 1.1 million rubles Dealers warn: there will be no massive discounts on cars before the New Year
Rolf said that Russians definitely shouldn’t expect discounts now. Moreover, cars will only become more expensive, since the recycling fee has increased since January 1, 2025. “The exchange rate of the ruble in world currencies is also important: at the end of the year we saw how the ruble sank against the dollar and the euro,” says Nikolai Ivanov, director of the new cars department at the Rolf DC. “We can definitely summarize that now is a good time to buy a new car, because prices will rise, and at the moment you can still “catch” the old price.”
Finally, AutoSpetsCenter stated that dealers simply do not have the resources to reduce the cost of a car against the backdrop of the Central Bank tightening its monetary policy, increasing the key rate and indexing the recycling fee. Although they are definitely interested in stimulating demand.
In Russia they chose the car of the year. Spoiler: he’s Chinese