Dealers often favor brands already familiar to the Russian market when importing vehicles on their own. For models not sold domestically, investments in promotion are required. Yulia Ovchinnikova, head of development and innovation at the Klyuchavto Group of Companies, explained to socialbites.ca that the holding is exploring imports from brands such as Mazda, Toyota, Skoda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, and others.
The interviewee noted that Klyuchavto has already arranged deliveries of the Mazda CX4 and Atenza, as well as the Toyota Avalon.
Avilon Automobile Group has pursued parallel imports and brought in Hongqi, Volkswagen Bora, Tayron and Talagon, Voyah Dreamer, Volvo XC90 and XC60, Mercedes-Benz V-Class, Changan UNI-K IDD, Toyota Camry, FAW B70, Jetta VA3, and Hongqi H9, among others, to the Russian market. Gratsin Belenova, who leads the wholesale car sales department at Avilon, spoke with socialbites.ca and cautioned that there are no early signs of price reductions.
Industry voices point out that rising car prices and longer parts procurement times must be accounted for. Vladimir Zhelobov, a sales manager for used cars at Avtodom and Avtospetstsentr, highlighted these pressures in an interview with socialbites.ca.
According to the source, customer requests can be fulfilled across a broad spectrum of vehicles, from affordable SUVs to luxury brands like Porsche, with the premium segment serving as a core specialty.
Inventory levels are intentionally kept lean. Zhelobov noted that this strategy is contributing to the growing popularity of Chinese brands in Russia.
Importing inexpensive cars is not profitable
Oleg Moseev, founder of the Automarketologist project, estimates that parallel imports could reach about 10% of the market by year’s end, but the budget segment remains unreliable for such schemes. He cites data showing ERA-GLONASS devices issued with import cars rising from October 2022, to 13 thousand, then 3.5 thousand in January, and more than 5 thousand in February, with a yearly pace of roughly 100–150 thousand units anticipated. These figures were provided to socialbites.ca by Moseev.
Compared with imports through parallel channels, Moseev notes the total cost of bringing a car in falls in the range of 3–5 million rubles, driven largely by elevated logistics expenses.
Other cost factors include at least 400,000 rubles required for delivery aside from excise duties and VAT. This covers logistics and financial transactions. As a result, moving cars into price brackets under about 2.5 million rubles is deemed impractical because of rapid price increases, Moseev explained.
Regulatory constraints from the customs authorities and tax bodies have tightened when registering cars for individuals, which further complicates cheaper models imported through parallel channels.
Looking ahead, Moseev doesn’t anticipate a wide expansion of models available via parallel imports. He emphasized that releasing vehicles of an unknown brand remains highly expensive.
As of now, the situation can be summarized as follows: for individual import, customs clearance tends to be more profitable than employing a parallel import mechanism used by a legal entity.
Denis Migal, general manager of the Fresh Auto dealership network, stated that individual purchases can be at least 20% cheaper since VAT is not paid in those transactions. He explained that when a dealer imports a car under a formal entity, the price rises to cover VAT and income tax, plus customs charges. In cases where the vehicle is a ‘white’ import, the economics can still favor buyers if the overall cost remains competitive.
Migal also pointed out that parallel imports carry currency exposure and longer delivery times, typically 2–3 months, which adds substantial risk for dealers.
He warned that parallel imports cannot displace the traditional market that involves manufacturers, distributors, and government regulation. They offer a temporary price anchor and a limited set of conditions. While grey imports can be interesting, building a lasting, global business on them is not feasible, Migal concluded.