Prospects for the Russian automotive market

21 July 2010
Moscow, PricewaterhouseCoopers Office

PricewaterhouseCoopers presented a review of the Russian automotive market in the first half of 2010.

Recent months' performance may indicate that after a year of stagnation, the market is beginning to recover both in quantitative and monetary terms, largely thanks to government support. In June 2010, the biggest sales volume of light vehicles since January 2009 was registered.

Import substitution, because of a weak rouble and high customs duties, and state programmes aimed at encouraging sales of cars produced in Russia continue to increase the share of domestic production in the market. The share of locally assembled cars as a percentage of total sales had been decreasing for several years in a row up to 2008. Since then it has increased significantly and by June 2010 reached its highest level in the last eight years. The share of foreign cars manufactured in Russia exceeded 30% in the first half of 2010.

PwC continues to believe that it is too early to say that the market is recovering significantly. With current macroeconomic trends set to continue, we believe that the sales result in 2010 will be close to our optimistic forecast made at the beginning of the year, reaching about 1.6m cars, mainly due to successful implementation of state incentives.

You can find more information about development trends of the Russian automotive market and our forecasts for development of the market in the presentation “Prospects for the Russian automotive market”.