The dealer complained about the mass appeals for the repair of Chinese cars

The level of warranty claims for a number of Chinese car brands now reaches 50%. This was stated by Anna Boyarshinova, CEO of the Perm automobile holding Verra, at the Russia—China conference during a discussion between the owners of large dealer holdings. A recording from the event on March 8 was published by the Avtotok Telegram channel.

"At the moment, the level of warranty claims for some brands reaches 50%. It's a huge amount, it's scary. Plus, there are a lot of refunds. We've never experienced anything like this. I had to expand my legal service 10 times in order to fight client terrorism and work with quality claims," Boyarshinova said.

The production facilities that need to be loaded for commercial repairs are used for warranty repairs at a loss, she shared. Mechanics do not want to work with warranty repairs, because they have to figure out the problem on their own due to the insufficient level of expertise from the distributor's warranty service, the lack of regulatory documentation, specifications and a training program. The mechanic spends a day on this, and his work is estimated as 20 minutes of car diagnostics.

"The next story is the supply of spare parts. Spare parts are coming and you have to solve the quest — what kind of spare parts are these, what is the VIN code. But there may be something else in the box. And then I'll have to prove it for six months. <...> I have one brand that owes 700,000 paid for spare parts that haven't reached me since October," said the CEO of the auto holding.

At the same time, Boyarshinova stressed that it is important at the state level to limit the entry of car companies into the Russian market without a well-thought-out development strategy, she pointed out and cited the Skywell brand as an example.

"This brand is currently living in Russia, our contract ended in October. He hasn't done anything for two years now. We incur losses of 1.5 million rubles per car. We spent a lot of investments in branding, it's more than 14 million <...>They do not solve warranty problems, do not respond to emails, and there is only one manager who is difficult to contact. Customer problems are not being solved. We have to use our own donor car to solve customers' warranty problems," Boyarshinova emphasized.

In the same den: automakers are getting crowded in Russia

Experts expect model cuts and the departure of some brands in 2025

On March 25, Alexey Podshchekoldin, head of the Russian Automobile Dealers Association (ROAD), said that dozens of car brands could leave the Russian market in 2025. In recent years, about 60 car companies have come to Russia, and only four of them are in demand — Changan, Chery, Geely and Haval, he noted.

On February 7, Skywell announced that there were no plans to develop a business selling new cars and to develop a dealer network in Russia. In December last year, it was reported that the dealerships of the Chinese brand in Russia began to close.