Russia April 2018: Lada XRAY breaks records in market up 17.6%

The Lada XRAY breaks its volume and share records at home in April.

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The Russian new car market is closing in on a very impressive feat: a full year of double-digit gains, with April marking the 11th consecutive month sales advance in the double-digits year-on-year at +17.6% to 152.425 units. It’s also the 14th year-on-year gain in a row. The year-to-date volume is now up 20.5% to 545.345, the largest score at this stage of the year since 2014 (829.046). Homegrown leader Lada follows its home market with a 17% gain to 20.1% share, ahead of Kia (+22%), Hyundai (+16%) and Renault (+3%). In the remainder of the Top 10, Toyota (+24%), Volkswagen (+23%), Ford (+21%) and Skoda (+18%) outpace the market whereas Nissan (+14%) and GAZ (+12%) fall short.

The CX-5 (+122%) helps Mazda up 78% this month in Russia.

Further down, Honda (+943%), Genesis (+211%), Mitsubishi (+139%), Mazda (+78%), Smart (+74%), Suzuki (+67%), Isuzu (+65%), Peugeot (+55%), Mini (+46%), Lexus (+28%) and Subaru (+27%) shine with the Chinese once again reaping some of the largest gains in market with Dongfeng (+151%), Zotye (+129%), FAW (+119%), Haval (+46%), Foton (+33%) and Chery (+31%) all markedly ahead of their April 2017 scores but none of them above 600 sales this month.

Born in 1977, the Lada 4×4 manages a 27% year-on-year gain to rank #10 in April.

The Kia Rio is the best-selling vehicle in Russia for the 14th time in the past 24 months despite a 5% year-on-year drop in April, once again resisting the assaults of the Lada Vesta up 25% this month and 50% YTD. The Lada Granta drops 12% at #3, the Hyundai Solaris is down 4% at #4 but the Hyundai Creta (+29%) and VW Polo (+20%) both frankly beat the market. It’s also the case for the Lada XRAY up 40% to break its monthly volume record at 4.309 (previous best 3.736 in December 2017), its share record at 2.8% (previous best 2.4% in April 2017) and equal its ranking record at #7 (also hit in December 2017).

The Toyota Prado is up 49% to return to the Russian Top 25 in April. Picture autoweztnik.ru

More surprising are the meteoric rises of the Lada Largus (+67%) to #8 and Lada 4×4 (+27%) to score its second Top 10 in the past three months, two nameplates far from being in their prime. As it has been the case for the past few years, SUVs lead the year-on-year gain charge with the Mazda CX-5 up 122% to hit its highest ranking since September 2016 at #17, the Hyundai Tucson up 114%, Mitsubishi Outlander up 81%, Toyota Prado up 49% to slot inside the Russian Top 25 for the second time in the past 16 months along with last December, the VW Tiguan up 28% and Kia Sportage up 25%. The Kia Cee’d (+34%) and Toyota Camry (+28%) are the best performing sedans.

Previous month: Russia March 2018: Lada and Mitsubishi shine in market up 13.9%

One year ago: Russia April 2017: Market confirms rebound at +6.9%

Full April 2018 Top 54 All-brands and Top 25 models below.