Sales of the Lada Kalina jumped 26% this September
The car market began to rebound in early fall. Car dealers managed to sell 186,000 vehicles, or 10% more than in August.
Surprisingly, Lada Kalina sales jumped 26%. At the same time, the traditional popularity of classic cars waned.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did a lot to popularise the Lada Kalina when he drove this model along the new Amur highway in late August. His trip received extensive media coverage.
The European Business Association (AEB) estimates that 1,321,000 cars were sold in Russia January-June 2010, or 18% over the same period in 2009. This September, car dealers managed to sell 186,000 vehicles, or 55% more than September 2009. David Thomas, chairman of the automakers committee at AEB Russia, said the Moscow International Auto Show showed high consumer interest and positively influenced car sales. He said other factors included numerous debuts, more affordable financing and the ongoing car-scrapping programme.
In all, AvtoVAZ sold 50,100 cars this September, exceeding August 2010 and September 2009 levels by 11% and 78%, respectively. Corporate car-sale patterns have changed appreciably. A total of 12,400 Lada Kalinas were sold this September, or 26% more than August 2010. This is an all-time high in the history of this model family. Corporate officials are confident that the increased sales were due to various advertising campaigns, as well as by the heightened attention of public opinion leaders. The latter implies Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's August 27 tour of the Amur highway in a bright-yellow Lada Kalina Sport. This event received extensive media coverage, with dealers subsequently noting greater customer interest in this model.
Against the backdrop of rising Lada Kalina sales, only 14,300 traditional sedan models, an AvtoVAZ hallmark, were sold this September, a 9% decline on August. Sergei Udalov, Deputy CEO of the Avtostat analytical agency, said demand for modern cars tended to increase in line with pre-crisis trends, and that production of the Kalina exceeded that of the traditional models. "People have to order and then wait until spring to get the sedans under the vehicle-scrapping programme," Udalov noted.
AvtoVAZ continues to expand sales. At the same time, South Korea's automotive giant KIA which had jumped to second place in August, fell to third place (after Chevrolet) this September. KIA explains the slump by a shortage of cars, promising that the situation will be rectified soon. We sell every car we receive, corporate officials stressed. We don't have enough cars due to the brand's rising popularity worldwide, and we are now working to increase the Russian quota, KIA officials stressed.
On the other hand, Chevrolet managed to boost September sales to 10,600 vehicles, a 32% increase on August. Corporate officials explained low sales by the fact that assembly plants were idle in August. They said the situation had now been normalised, and that sales were on the rise. AEB said sales of all Chevrolet models were good, but that Chevrolet Niva SUV sales had jumped by an impressive 28% on August.
Renault Logan and Ford Focus vied for the right to become the best-selling car model throughout January to September 2010. This August, first place went to Daewoo Nexia, with the Ford Focus regaining its position in September when sales jumped 55% to 6,600 vehicles.
Oleg Datskiv, business development director at Auto Dealer.ru online portal, said it was barely possible to talk about sales increases in September. "The market grew due to AvtoVAZ," he added. Datskiv also said that foreign companies had noticed the Russian automotive market's May 2010 growth and had started delivering more cars. "The market will not rebound in the near future because monthly pre-crisis car sales were high, topping 200,000 vehicles."
Yevgenia Sergiyenko