Body accepted: demand for new cars increased by a third
Russians' interest in new cars has grown by 15-30% since the beginning of 2025, dealers and analysts told Izvestia. Russian and Chinese brands, as well as the Belarusian Belgee, are among the top buyers. Experts expect a gradual recovery in demand amid a reduction in the key rate to 17% and active dealer programs for inventory sales. The situation in the automotive market is described in the Izvestia article.
How sales increased
In the last three months, there has been an increase in consumer activity in the new car segment in Russia, car dealers and analysts told Izvestia. According to Romir research holding, while last year only 7% planned to purchase, this year the provider has grown to 37%.
The proportion of people who prefer to buy a new car has also increased significantly: from 33% to 51% compared to last year. Only 37% make a choice in favor of a used car.
"The market is adapting to new conditions, and consumers are becoming more open to new offers," said Svetlana Sorokina, head of the company's Auto business. — However, the confidence factor in the "old" brands is still very high.
A sharp increase in sales began in the second week of September, Ilya Petrov, director of retail sales at Avilon AG, told Izvestia: traffic and contracts increased by 30-40% compared to August. As a result, demand in September 2025 approached the figures for the same period last year.
"In September, demand increased for hybrids, electric cars and cars imported under the parallel import scheme," he said. — The average cost increased slightly in September and amounts to about 3.76 million rubles.
According to <url>, consumer activity increased by 14%. However, it remains a quarter below the peak activity of last year. In January-August 2025, new cars became 10.3% more in demand compared to the same period in 2024, the Avito Auto press service added. In August, Russians were 6.3% more likely to look for new cars than in July.
"We are seeing a steady increase in demand for new cars: in mid—September it was 17% higher than at the end of August," said Nikita Ivakhnenko, head of the New Cars division of the platform. — The growth in consumer activity indicates that the market is returning to a stable state, and the sustainability of the emerging trend will depend on further monetary policy. We can say that there is a tendency towards a gradual improvement in the market situation.
Dmitry Kuznetsov, supervisor of the casco department at Rosgosstrakh, confirmed that in September there was an increase in the number of policies issued for new cars compared to August.
According to the data of the analytical agency Autostat, 122.2 thousand new passenger cars were sold in the last month of summer 2025.
However, in general, the dynamics of demand for new cars has recently been negative — the market is aiming for 1.2 million cars by the end of 2025, said Andrey Olkhovsky, CEO of Avtdom Group. This is about 25-27% less than last year.
"Demand for cars has improved slightly now, as the Bank of Russia has given hope for reducing the cost of car loans by lowering the key interest rate," he said. — Cars for which maximum discounts from distributors are provided are the most interesting for customers. The majority of buyers still have demand for Chinese cars, because these are the only cars that can now be officially purchased, with the exception of Russian ones.
Which brands do Russians choose?
Over the past eight months of 2025, 773.2 thousand new passenger cars were sold in Russia, which is 23% less than in January — August 2024, according to Autostat data. The most popular brands among Russians are domestic Lada Granta and Vesta, according to <url>. Haval Jolion, Chery Tiggo 7, Changan Uni-S and Geely Monjaro are the leaders among foreign manufacturers.
"Against the background of a general decline in sales in the new car segment, there is a decrease in the volume of supply from Chinese manufacturers, which allowed the Belarusian Belgee X50 to become one of the bestsellers of the domestic market," they noted.
Russian manufacturers are demonstrating price stability in the new car market: in August, the average price of a new car was almost 1.6 million rubles, actually returning to the level of the beginning of the year. The average cost of a new Chinese-made car in August 2025 was 3.5 million rubles, or plus half a percent compared to the previous month. However, this does not change the overall trend — since the beginning of 2025, the decrease has been more than 3%.
According to Avito Auto, in the summer of 2025, the most popular new car brands were SWM, Moskvich, Solaris, LADA and Jetour, while the models were SWM G05 Pro, Lada Vesta, Moskvich 3, Lada Granta and Jetour Dashing.
The demand for Chery (+47.2%) and Geely (+10.2%) cars, as well as Jetour Dashing (+47%), Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Max (+46.2%), Lada Vesta (+42.1%) and Omoda C5 (+10.1%). In general, in August, demand for new Chinese cars increased by 3.2% compared to July, and since the beginning of the year, the indicator has increased by almost a third (+31.9%).
The average cost of new cars in August decreased by 2.7% to 2.8 million rubles. The top models that have fallen in price since the beginning of the year are Haval M6, Omoda C5, as well as Chery Tiggo 4, Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Max and Chery Tiggo 8 Pro Max.
According to Andrey Olkhovsky, Russians buy either domestic brands or Chinese, and the share of all others is extremely insignificant. Haval, Chery, Geely and Changan are the leaders among Chinese brands by a margin.
— Now the average cost of an insured new car is about 2.1 million rubles, — he said.
At the same time, despite the growing confidence in new brands, car owners still expect the return of "old" and time-tested brands to the market, Romir added. 64% of Russians expect the restoration of supplies of European, Japanese and American brands, which underlines their continued loyalty and potential demand for their products in the future.
How will the market situation develop?
The Russian automotive market is experiencing multidirectional trends that create the impression of simultaneous growth and decline in demand, said Alexey Ivanov, owner of the Alliance Trucks commercial vehicle dealership network.
"There is indeed an increase in interest in purchases, especially for domestic brands against the background of the requirements of the state regulator for the localization of cars for taxis and other commercial needs," he believes. — But this interest has not yet been transformed into mass sales due to high interest rates on car loans and accumulated inventory at dealers. The share of car loan failures reaches 77%, which significantly limits purchasing power.
The car market has been in a rather stressful, volatile state for the past year or two: the departure of popular brands from Russia, high loan rates, rising costs of vehicles themselves and the instability of the financial situation of potential buyers - all this negatively affected demand, said Bulat Kilov, the founder of the Krytex car market.
Previously, about 20% of Russians updated cars every three to five years, trying to meet the warranty period, but at the beginning of this year the share of such buyers was half as much - many postponed the purchase "until better times." That is, only 10% of Russians continue to change their car regularly so that they do not have to carry out expensive repairs, change spare parts and worry about the condition of an aging car. And only about 1% try to change their car almost every year.
— There were two key factors influencing the decision—making on the purchase of a car, - he noted. — The main deterrent factor of the last year was the high key rate, and the main motive for the purchase was the expectation of an increase in scrap collection. And that's why the picture is ambiguous.
Forecasts for the autumn are cautiously optimistic: experts expect a gradual recovery amid a reduction in the key rate from 21% to 17% and active dealer stock sale programs. But the market will have to recover to the level of 2024 for several more years — real growth is expected only in 2026.
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