Russia May 2019: Skoda (+16.9%), Lada Granta (+30.7%), Vesta (+14.9%) can’t help steepest market fall in almost 3 years (-6.7%)

The Kodiaq helps Skoda up 16.9%, the only double-digit gainer in the Top 15.

Reduced government subsidies and a VAT increase earlier this year are enough to pull the Russian new light vehicle market in negative for the third time in the past 4 months, but the negative trend is deepening, May marking the steepest fall in 32 months (since September 2016) at -6.7% to 137.634 units. The year-to-date volume is now down -2.2% to 677.570. Homegrown market leader Lada (+0.3%) is the only gainer in the Top 6, even though it’s by a smidge. Kia (-0.5%) and Hyundai (-6.1%) mean the entire podium outperforms the sinking market. Skoda (+16.9%) stands out as the only double-digit gainer in the Top 15 and BMW (+8%) is the only additional gainer within that group: that’s 3 out of 15. In contrast, Chevrolet (-35.1%), UAZ (-31.9%), Nissan (-31.4%), Mitsubishi (-16.9%), Lexus (-15.2%) and Renault (-12.6%) struggle. Geely (+242.3%), Haval (+149%) again the 2 best-selling Chinese carmakers in Russia, Datsun (+81.5%), Smart (+78.7%), Dongfeng (+71%), Brilliance (+33.3%), Porsche (+11.9%) and Jeep (+10.3%) also gain ground.

Model-wise, the Two two best-sellers are also the only double-digit gainers in the Top 12: the Lada Granta (+30.7%) and Vesta (+14.9%) cement their dominations of the Russian sales charts, followed by the Kia Rio (-5.6%), Hyundai Creta (+0.4%) and Solaris (-18.1%). The Skoda Rapid (+9.5%) and VW Tiguan (+7.2%) are the only other Top 10 nameplates advancing this month, the latter among the ten favourite models in the country for the third time in the past 9 months. The Skoda Kodiaq (+144.5%) lodges an 8th Top 25 finish in the past 11 months but still hasn’t cracked the 2019 Top 25, and the Kia Optima (+28.6%) and Toyota RAV4 (+18.4%) also impress.

Previous month: Russia April 2019: Skoda (+16.2%), BMW (+13.1%), Geely (+260.2%) impress in 2nd market drop in 3 months

One year ago: Russia May 2019: 15th consecutive gain in highest market in 4 years

Full May 2019 Top 53 All-brands and Top 25 models below.