Car dealerships of brands from China began to close 2.4 times more often in Russia
In 2024 in Russia, the number of closures of car showrooms of car brands from China increased 2.4 times, to 449 outlets. At the same time, openings of car dealerships of brands from China decreased by almost 1.5 times over the year, to 964 outlets. This was reported by "Kommersant" on January 22 with reference to the data of "Gazprombank Avtolizing" and "AutoBusinessRevue".
According to analysts, most often car dealers themselves broke contracts because they failed to make a profit. However, this was often insisted on by the distributor itself, which was dissatisfied with the failure to fulfill shipment plans and delayed investment in the reformatting of showrooms.
Despite this, the total number of showrooms of brands from China in 2024 grew by 19.8% to 2.78 thousand points. And the total number of showrooms of all auto brands in Russia increased by 14.2% over the year, to 4.16 thousand units. The share of dealerships of brands from China increased from 63.8% to 66.9%.
The Chinese-Belarusian brand Belgee opened the most showrooms last year (135 outlets). It is followed by St. Petersburg brand Solaris (according to different data, 86 or 90 showrooms). Next come Haval (75 showrooms), GAC and Soueast (58 and 57 points respectively).
In general, Chery (216 outlets) is the leader among the "Chinese" in terms of sales network size, but its growth in 2024 amounted to only 4.%. The second place is occupied by Geely (206 points; +21.2%), the third - by Changan (197 points, +22.%), followed by Omoda and Jaecoo (180 and 177 points respectively).
On January 20, car dealers said that they will not be able to reduce prices for new cars in Russia, as the margin is exhausted due to the high cost of financing and the new rates on duty.
On January 16, it was reported that a large number of new cars had accumulated in the warehouses of dealers, distributors and suppliers in the Russian car market by the beginning of 2025, the volume will be enough for 4-6 months of sales. According to Andrei Olkhovsky, General Director of Avtodom dealership holding, the situation at the end of last year was very negative. The largest volume of cars piled up at volume-forming brands, which could not stop deliveries quickly.
