New cars for parallel import: what about the warranty? What are the prospects?

What’s new in the car market?

Chinese brands are firmly established at the top of sales.

Brands we had never heard of contacted us: Skywell, Xpeng, Tank and others. And everyone sells only crossovers (or pickups), and not the simplest and cheapest. So far, only two companies out of a dozen plan to include a sedan. But these sedans will also be expensive – about the size and equipment of a Toyota Camry.

Everything is clear: Chinese companies actively occupy the most profitable niches vacated by European and Japanese brands. And day by day we get a market with cars up to 2 million rubles (Lada) or from 2.5 million (the rest).

The void could be partially filled by Korean brands. They limited assembly in Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg, but did not stop deliveries. For example, a batch of Hyundai Tucson crossovers was brought from Korea in October. But also at a price of 3 to 4.5 million. The stocks of Rio and Solaris have now almost dried up.

What’s wrong with parallel import?

Hopes for parallel imports of new cars have not yet materialised. The mechanism for importing new cars under gray schemes is too complicated and expensive, and logistical options are limited.

In the summer, legal entities were not allowed to obtain vehicle type approval (OTTS) for models that do not have it.

Passing OTTS is a full-fledged certification with a huge testing program that includes multiple crash tests. The sale of a batch of several hundred cars will not cover the costs. Therefore, it was allowed to replace OTTS with the Vehicle Design Safety Certificate (SBKTS) – as individuals.

But still this is a “piece” of import: each car requires a separate package of documents and a separate technical expertise – “checking whether the actual condition of the car meets the safety criteria.”

There is still some progress on parallel imports. But they are also connected to China. The multi-brand dealership Avilon announced in October that it would bring a thousand Volkswagen Bora sedans – the Chinese version (from 2.5 million rubles). Also, dealers have a Chevrolet Groove compact crossover – a converted Chinese Baojun 510 for the Chilean market (from 2.35 million).

What about security?

The ERA-GLONASS system cannot be installed on imported vehicles until February 1, 2023. And for those manufactured in Russia and other EAEU countries – until January 31, 2023. Chinese companies did not fail to take advantage of this. In particular, in September, Haval began to offer cars assembled in Tula without an “era” (at the same prices).

As an official trade manufacturer, he is obliged to retrofit customers’ machines with this device free of charge and has therefore not lowered the prices. Suppose that happens.

And what will happen to the “parallel” imported cars?

What happens with the warranty?

There are regular discussions in the Russian Dealers Association about how to deal with warranty and other obligations. Manufacturers do not support warranties on machines sold without their knowledge and consent. But by law, the warranty must still be – and this burden falls on the seller. Dealers are not at all interested in paying for the repair of faults that occurred through no fault of their own. Yes, still tormented by the search for spare parts. It is to be expected that the legislation will be slightly amended for parallel imports.

So far, two options are being considered.

The first: warranty on a paid basis – the purchaser pays extra to receive warranty service in some part. The principle is similar to OSAGO – many people pay and those who break something receive payments. There are already such offers on the market.

Second: there is no guarantee and it is in the purchase contract. Don’t like it – don’t buy. In fact, a typical scheme of gray dealers, who sold some cars in this way. Everything that is broken, you fix yourself. Well, the ERA-GLONASS block may need to be installed at your own expense. Most likely, this will fall into the possession of the second owner if he is lucky enough to re-register the car with the traffic police.

What are the prospects for 2023?

In any case, there are no major prospects for parallel imports of cars. The main difficulty is to find the machines themselves. More precisely, the one who agrees to sell them in significant quantities “on the left”. Japanese, European, American and Korean brands are not yet ready for this. Sanctions, plus they are in deficit themselves. There aren’t many channels left.

Most likely, the year 2023 will be a continuation of Chinese expansion. Its size is clear from the statistics of the issuance of Electronic Passports (EPTS). The share of passports issued for new cars of Chinese brands exceeded 80% in the summer. South Korea is second with 7%.

Talking about the UAE and Kazakhstan being a Klondike of new cars is untenable. Markets too small. Their total share of deliveries to us is about 4%, numerically less than two thousand cars per year (a total of 40-45 thousand were sold per month in the fall).

A real Klondike is a completely different country. We just have to wait for the healthy competition between Chinese brands to start and online sales to grow without a middleman. Then prices may gradually become reasonable. And the range is wider than thirty models of crossovers.

Will there be logans from Tolyatti?

In the spring, AVTOVAZ President Maxim Sokolov made it clear at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that the plant had an agreement with Renault on the possibility of producing Logan and Sandero models in Togliatti. Also on the new platform. However, difficulties even arose with Largus, which appears to be 70% localized. Its assembly will not resume until autumn 2023. If they resume at all.

The release of Logans is only possible with a clear supply of components. Renault does not promise deliveries – it does not have enough, sales fell by 30% by the summer. In addition, AvtoVAZ will have to pay royalties for every car sold. The same goes for Duster. So all these projects are on the shelf.

Maxim Sokolov confirmed to our editor-in-chief that AVTOVAZ continues to work on a new line of B-class cars – a sedan, station wagon and cross station wagon, originally designed on the CMF-B platform of the Renault group, and based on a crossover on the current Vesta.