BMW and Mercedes want to completely ban the supply of their cars to Russia

Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen have told Reuters they ban car sales to Russia and are doing everything possible to prevent unauthorized exports. This was reported by the Reuters news agency on February 12.

Car brand representatives stressed the difficulty of investigating potential violations: such investigations are "time-consuming and complex" and require the help of third parties, Mercedes said in a statement.

BMW said it had instructed its Chinese retail division to "categorically object to any potential export of cars to Russia." The automaker's letter notes that if the cars do get to Russia according to the "gray" schemes, "it will happen outside our sphere of influence — and also directly against our will."

Tens of thousands of cars were exported from China to Russia under "grey market" schemes, allowing them to circumvent anti-Russian sanctions and the obligations of automakers to leave the Russian market. This is happening despite the opposition of automakers, Reuters journalists found out.

According to the investigation, most of these vehicles are manufactured in China, where many international brands assemble cars in cooperation with local partners, or are delivered there after production in other countries. Carriers of cars of European, Japanese and South Korean brands from China to Russia classify new cars as used to avoid the need to obtain the approval of the automaker for sale to Russia.

In China, used cars with zero mileage are often sold at significant discounts. But in Russia, according to the Russian dealer and the documents on the supply of cars, which were reviewed by Reuters, their price is comparable to the prices of new cars.

You can't forbid living beautifully: Russians are buying up premium European cars

Sales of luxury cars of European brands in the Russian Federation exceeded the pre-sanctions level

On February 5, the Autostat agency reported that in January 2026, almost 47.8 thousand new and used passenger cars were imported to Russia, which turned out to be one of the lowest in the last few months. An even smaller volume of passenger car imports was recorded in February last year, when it amounted to about 35,000 units.

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