The expert listed cars that are profitable for import into the Russian Federation

After the increase in the recycling fee, it is most profitable to bring to Russia not only cars with engines up to 160 hp, but also new cars with two-liter engines, where the increase in the rate turned out to be relatively moderate and not critical for the final price. This was stated by Alexander Stepanov, the founder of the Sun Auto car import company, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported on February 18.

So, in the segment up to 160 hp, cars of Toyota Corolla, Honda XR-V, Audi Q3, Audi A3, BMW X1 (1.5), as well as Mazda CX-5 models are steadily supplied to the Russian market from China.

As for cars with 2.0 engines, Russians continue to actively order BMW X3 and X1, as well as Toyota Highlander and RAV4.

In addition, as the expert pointed out, the high utilization of non-premium cars under the age of three years will not stop the demand for such models, since there is no alternative to them. Such models as BMW X5/X7, Mercedes GLE/GLS, Toyota Land Cruiser 300 and Lexus LX are always in demand, Stepanov emphasized. For customers of this level, increased recycling has become only an additional expense item, and not a barrier to purchase, he added.

They charge for demand: used foreign cars that have not been disposed of have increased in price by 15%

What is the reason and why has this led to the transformation of the car market?

At the beginning of 2026, the Mazda CX-5 crossover became one of the most popular cars on the Russian market, although this model is not officially on the market. On February 2, Sergey Tselikov, the head of Autostat, explained that this result was due to the engine's "pass-through" under the new recycling rates, the presence of the usual automatic transmission and the strength of the brand.

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