The head of Autostat called the alarming drop in car sales in January

According to the results of the second full working week of 2026, sales of new passenger cars decreased by 19% compared to the previous week, to 18.2 thousand units. This is 11% less than in the fourth week of 2025. Sergey Tselikov, director of the Autostat analytical agency, told about this in his Telegram channel, noting that the results of last week give an alarming signal to the car market.

"We can only hope that the weather has affected — snowfalls and cold weather. I really don't want to believe in the beginning of another "global cooling of demand." Many people in the automotive business remember the first half of 2025 with a shudder," wrote Tselikov.

According to him, sales of light commercial vehicles (LCVs up to 3.5 tons) decreased by 13%, to 1.2 thousand units. This is a quarter less (-24.5%) than in the fourth week of last year.

As for trucks (weighing over 3.5 tons), sales did not exceed 900 units. The decrease compared to the previous week was 3%, and by the same week in 2025 — 45%.

"Buyers are exhausted": car sales in 2025 decreased by 16%

Chinese cars are being replaced by Russian models

On January 16, Autostat reported that from January 1 to January 15, 2026, 30 car brands immediately changed prices for their new cars. One or more models rose in price for 28 of them, and two more had multidirectional price changes.

On January 14, car dealers warned that in the first quarter of 2026, new passenger cars in Russia will continue to rise in price, adding an average of 5-10%. According to their estimates, prices for new passenger cars in the Russian Federation have increased by an average of 1.5–3% since January 2026.

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