Alternative car imports in the Russian Federation exceeded the share of 50%

In the first two months of 2026, more than half of the new passenger cars imported to Russia (53%) were through alternative supply channels. At the same time, the share of alternative imports was 46% over the past year, and less than 20% in 2024. Sergey Tselikov, director of the Autostat analytical agency, told about this on March 5 in his Telegram channel.

In total, 44.8 thousand new passenger cars were imported to Russia in January –February, which is 7% less than in the same period last year. Almost three quarters came directly from China (72.9%; 32.7 thousand units), and the volume of shipments decreased by 23%.

The second destination after China is the transit of cars through Kyrgyzstan (7 thousand units), imports from there increased by 306%. The expert explained this growth by the fact that in Russia it is planned to adjust the mechanism for calculating recycling for cars imported into the country from the territory of the EAEU countries. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation noted that the changes are aimed at eliminating cases of underestimation of the customs value of a vehicle and various schemes to reduce the amount of payments.

Belarus is in third place (1.43 thousand units), South Korea and Japan joined the top five, the volume of imports in these areas did not exceed 1 thousand cars. Geely is the leader in the brand structure of imports (7.4 thousand units; +918%), Mazda came in second place (4.8 thousand units; +1450%). Hongqi, Toyota and Changan also made the top five. The analyst noted that many Chinese brands have seen a significant reduction in imports, for example, the import of Chery cars to Russia has come to naught.

"Samurai" took off: why Russians rushed to buy Japanese cars

In February, Tenet replaced Chery, and Mazda and Toyota showed impressive growth in popularity.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that sales of cars of the Russian brand Tenet reached 50 thousand units in the first six months of its presence on the market. Representatives of the company noted that according to the results of the first two months of 2026, two Tenet models are among the top 3 best-selling SUVs on the Russian market.

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