In January 2023, spending on new car purchases in Russia dropped by nearly 40 percent. This finding comes from TASS, which cited the Avtostat agency’s collaborative project Auto-Discovery as the source for the latest market metrics.
The research shows that at the start of 2023 Russian households allocated 111.6 billion rubles to buy new cars. That figure marks a 39 percent decline from January 2022, when purchases totaled 183.3 billion rubles. The downturn affected most brands, with the notable exception of Chinese and domestically produced models, which neither fully avoided nor fully benefited from the broader market trend, reflecting shifting consumer preferences and the evolving competitive landscape in the automotive sector.
In January, a total of 45.2 thousand new passenger vehicles were registered, representing a decrease of 47 percent compared with the same month in the previous year, when 85.9 thousand units were sold. The pronounced seasonality and annual comparison highlight the persistence of weak demand in the early weeks of 2023, alongside broader macroeconomic factors that influenced consumer financing and replacement cycles.
During parliamentary discussions in the Federation Council, Maxim Sokolov, the former president of AvtoVAZ, argued against government support for projects with low localization in the automotive industry. He warned that the growing presence of Chinese automakers in the Russian market could undermine the domestic supply chain by reducing demand for locally produced components and potentially hampering Russia’s technological leadership in vehicle manufacturing.