Azerbaijan Full Year 2018: Hyundai Accent snaps #1 spot, new local brand Khazar lands

The Iran Khodro Dena is now produced locally and sold as the Khazar LD.

The Azerbaijani new car market continues to recover in 2018 with sales up a splendid 33.3% year-on-year to 9.262. Hyundai (+84.9%) vastly outpaces the market to improve its share to 25.2%, now followed by Toyota (+127.3%) up two spots to #2. As a result, Lada (+16.1%) is knocked down to #3 but Kia (+40.1%) steps up to #4. Ravon (-85.9%) stopped exports from Uzbekistan in 2018 and therefore slips out of the Top 10. Volkswagen (+281%), Renault (+175%), BMW (+135%), Nissan (+105%), Mercedes (+91.2%) and Lexus (+48.1%) also impress further down.

But the main event in Azerbaijan in 2018 is to be found in 5th place with the launch of local brand Khazar (“Caspian” in local language) which started assembling Iran Khodro models in the country in April with sales kicked off in June. 968 units were produced in 2018 and 765 sold, with plans to reach 5.000 cars per year in 2020-2021. For now, the Iran Khodro Dena (under the name Khazar LD/SD) and Peugeot Pars (as the Khazar Peugeot 406) are sold in Azerbaijan, with plans to extend the range to include the Renault Tondar (aka Dacia Logan) and Peugeot 207.

In the models ranking, the Hyundai Accent takes the lead ahead of the valiant Lada 4×4 with the Khazar LD landing directly in third place. The Toyota Camry surges 280% year-on-year to #4 thanks to the new generation with the RAV4 rounding up the Top 5 and the Mercedes C-Class (thanks to an order by the Traffic Police Department) and the VW Polo breaking into the annual Azerbaijani Top 10 for the first time.

Previous year: Azerbaijan Full Year 2017: Hyundai and Ravon Nexia R3 top market up 26.5%

Two years ago: Azerbaijan Full Year 2016: Lada 4×4 new leader in market down 47%

Full Year 2018 Top 10 brands and Top 5 models rankings below.