The dealer named the number of closed car dealerships in Russia

About 450 dealer showrooms were closed in Russia last year, and about 200 in the first half of 2025. This was stated by Andrey Kamensky, Marketing Director of Avilon AG, according to the Autostat agency on October 17.

"A significant driver of the car market growth may be a possible further reduction in the key rate by another 3-4 percentage points. Otherwise, the trend towards withdrawal from the market will continue, and we will see examples of the closure of not only small players, but also once large holdings," Kamensky said.

He explained that in the first half of the year, dealers could not maintain a high level of quality due to lower profitability, which is why some of them closed their showrooms.

Kamensky noted that the dealer business has been undergoing a global transformation over the past year. He called one of the main changes a shift in the interest of manufacturers from the profitability of dealers and building long-term relationships towards solving their own tasks "to capture the market at any cost." The expert pointed out that in such a strategy, all parties suffer financially, except for the end customer, for whom there is a struggle.

In addition, Andrey Olkhovsky, CEO of Avtodom dealer holding, shared that in the first half of this year, almost 100% of car dealers and service centers received losses as a result of their work, which, in particular, is due to the high key interest rate, low customer activity and lack of access to loans.

In turn, Roman Slutsky, CEO of Alarm Motors, noted that with demand growing in the middle of the year, lower costs of financing warehouses and the emerging "withdrawal" of the population from deposits, dealers had a temporary opportunity to earn money by selling cars, and in September demand was spurred by news of a planned increase in recycling from November 1.

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Why are the former market favorites losing ground in Russia

The day before, it was reported that the Belarusian crossover Belgee X50, which became the bestseller of the Moscow car market, lost sales to Haval Jolion in St. Petersburg, but was ahead of Lada models.

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