Issuance of car loans in Russia decreased by 53% in March

Against the background of an almost twofold decline in the car market by the end of March 2025, the issuance of car loans in Russia showed a drop of 45% in units and 53% in money. This was reported on April 9 by the analytical agency Autostat.

At the same time, in the first month of spring, total loans for new and used cars showed an increase compared to the February results: they increased by 20% in quantitative terms and by 22% in monetary terms.

As noted by Sergey Udalov, Executive director of Autostat, lending to new cars in March increased by 16% in units and by 21% in rubles compared to February. In relation to used cars, March showed an increase of 24% compared to February (both in quantitative and monetary terms).

The March situation in car loans turned out to be more positive than in the car market as a whole, Udalov said. Now almost all brands subsidize loans. Thus, given the discounts due to the accumulated runoff, despite the high key rate of the Central Bank, it is now possible to purchase a new car on credit at a very low percentage, the analyst explained.

Last year's snow: new car sales halved in March

Why has the purchasing activity of Russians decreased?

By the end of March 2025, 79.8 thousand new passenger cars were sold in Russia, which is 45.5% less than in the first spring month of 2024. Lada remains the market leader, its share in early spring exceeded 31% (a year ago this figure was below 28%), and sales amounted to 25.2 thousand copies sold.

The Committee of Automobile Manufacturers of the Association of European Businesses (AEB) announced on March 5 that February 2025 set a ten-year anti-record in new car sales. According to Alexey Kalitsev, Chairman of the committee, such factors as increased recycling fees, high cost of loans and reduced availability, as well as changes in the tax system led to a reduction in sales.