Russians began to buy Chinese cars less

In March and in the first quarter of 2025 as a whole, sales of Chinese cars in the Russian market decreased. In total, all brands from China sold about 41 thousand cars in Russia in March (-49%) and about 132 thousand in the first quarter (-32%). The share of cars from China returned to the levels of two years ago and for the first time since the beginning of 2023 amounted to 49.6% in March this year, according to data from Gazprombank Autoleasing, which was reviewed by Izvestia on April 9.

Monthly sales of even popular Chinese brands did not exceed 10 thousand units. Thus, the number of Haval transactions decreased by 40% in March and amounted to 9.8 thousand vehicles. This is the best result among all the "Chinese". And only due to a relatively good January, the brand closed the quarter as a whole with a result of 38.3 thousand cars (-19% by 2024). The sales dynamics of the Chery brand turned out to be only slightly better than that of the leader in March (8.4 thousand cars, -37%), but worse than in the first quarter (32.5 thousand, -21%). In March, customers purchased 5.1 thousand cars from the Geely brand. This is 67% less than a year ago. Similar trends are observed in the first quarter — 16.4 thousand cars (-56%).

Experts clarified that against this background, domestic brands appeared in a more favorable light. According to the results of the first quarter, they accounted for 98 thousand transactions or 39% of the market (+9 percentage points by the first quarter of 2024). However, their sales in "pieces" are also falling this year. The Lada brand shipped 28.6 thousand cars (-33%) to dealers in March and 76.2 thousand (-25%) in the first quarter. 4.1 thousand customers chose Solaris for the quarter. A year ago, at this time, the brand was not yet on sale. Moskvich has 3,700 transactions (-25% compared to the first quarter of 2024). LCV equipment GAZ, UAZ and Sollers provided the market with a total of 13.3 thousand more customers (-41%).

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"There are no fewer negative factors affecting the market. The main one is the prices of new cars, which in most cases are higher than the purchasing power of the population. Last year, they were largely offset by loans, but only before the refinancing rate was raised to 21% in October. This year, the factor of tightening macroprudential restrictions has been added to this. As a result, previously up to 80% of Chinese cars were sold on credit, but by March this share had shrunk to 20-30% in a number of brands. Without significant credit support, most potential customers are unable to buy a new car today, the average price of which is above three million rubles," said Nikolai Fomin, Director of Sales at Gazprombank Automotive Leasing.

According to him, monthly sales growth to six figures is possible only by the end of the second quarter and only if monetary policy is eased, including a possible rate cut on June 6, and increased government and distributor support measures. The result of the first half of the year may not exceed 550-600 thousand transactions, the expert emphasized.

Earlier, on April 7, it was reported that the average price of a new car in the first quarter of 2025 was 2.96 million rubles. Compared to the same period last year, Moskvich (-14.7%) and Omoda (-4%) cars lost the most significantly in price among the brands. The experts of Avito Auto told Izvestia about this.