According to foreign media reports, Maxim Sokolov, CEO of Russia’s largest automaker Avtovaz, said that passenger car sales in Russia will fall by 25% to 1.1 million units this year.
In contrast, Russia sold 1.55 million passenger cars last year, a year-on-year increase of 47%.
Market AnalysisThe division initially expected Russia’s passenger car sales to decline by only 10% year-on-year in 2025, citing inflation and rising car scrapping costs.
Image credit: Avtovaz
Now, Maxim Sokolov said: “The current situation is grim, the market has clearly shown a downward trend, and the overall passenger car market size will shrink by about a quarter this year compared to last year.” He mentioned that about 500,000 new cars are currently ready for sale, but finding a buyer is very difficult.
Dealers in Russia said macroeconomic uncertainty is weakening market demand. Potential buyers are leaning towards saving or converting funds into dollars, betting on the depreciation of the ruble, which economists generally expect.
According to market analyst Autostat, sales of new passenger cars in Russia fell 26% to 440,259 units from January to May this year, while sales of Avtovaz Automobile fell 24.2% to 131,316 units.
Autostat data also shows that Russian passenger car inventories have accumulated to more than 500,000 units. According to Sergei Tselikov, head of Autostat, dealers across Russia are increasingly attracting buyers with significant discounts.
In addition, according to the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti, in the first five months of 2025, RussiaElectric vehicleSales plummeted to a third of the same period last year, further exacerbating the challenges facing Russia’s domestic automotive industry.
Sokolov said, “The situation is serious, and with such sharp market fluctuations, the production line will not be able to maintain normal operation. ”
Avtovaz is taking steps to respond to the crisis by adjusting its production plans for 2025 and expects its sales to fall by 20% to 25% to 367,200 units this year.
After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Western automakers quickly stopped selling and producing cars in Russia, and the Russian auto market fell off a cliff. Although the rapid replacement of Chinese car companies has driven the market recovery, the latest data shows that the Russian automotive industry will once again enter a downward channel in 2025.
