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Crimea Was Left Without New Cars

2024

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Video: Crimea Was Left Without New Cars

Video: Crimea Was Left Without New Cars
Video: Life Inside Putin’s Crimea 2024, March
Crimea Was Left Without New Cars
Crimea Was Left Without New Cars
Anonim

Issue of new Russian numbers of the 82 region in Crimea

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Car business on my knees

“Now all car sales in Crimea are carried out, as they say, on their knees,” say specialists of the site selling new and used cars in Ukraine RST.ua. - The main scheme is as follows: a local dealer buys a car from an authorized dealer in Russia at a discount (and this is not even a sub-dealer margin), brings a car to the Crimea and sells it. The availability of such machines is minimal, most of the proposals are made to order.”

According to the general director of the Lada distributor in Ukraine, JSC UkrAvtoVAZ Igor Voznyuk, an alternative for Crimean consumers is to buy a car in mainland Russia (for example, in Krasnodar) and drive it on their own. “But not everyone is willing to bear the additional costs of time and finances,” he notes.

Under these conditions, a certain pent-up demand arose at the local car market, even despite the holiday season that failed for the Crimea this year. However, foreign automobile concerns, fearing possible sanctions from the West, are in no hurry to resume deliveries of cars to the peninsula through their Russian distributors. “Countries whose companies are key automakers in the world do not recognize the annexation of Crimea; various sanctions have been introduced against Russia. And although there is no direct ban on the supply of new cars to Crimea, foreign automakers cannot but take into account the views of their states on this issue, and it is unlikely that they will look for dealers of their products in Crimea until the situation is resolved. And the situation may not be resolved soon,”said Dmitry Baranov, a leading expert at Finam Management.

The entire auto business of the peninsula depends, first of all, on the political situation and its "uncertainty", agree to RST.ua. Any foreign carmaker present in Europe or the USA does not want to have problems because of some absolutely insignificant sales market, such as Crimea.

In the light of political realities, it is significant that the Chinese Geely was among the first deliveries of cars to the Crimea. At the beginning of the summer, three brand dealerships passed under Russian jurisdiction - one in Sevastopol and two in Simferopol. By the way, according to Avtostat, in 2013 Geely became the most popular brand in the Crimean car market with a share of 9.6%, and in the current situation, the company intends to strengthen its position in this region.

The head of Hyundai CIS will help AvtoVAZ sell cars

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Lada instead of ZAZ

Russian automakers headed to AvtoVAZ also rushed to the Crimea, which in October intends to open a new dealership Lada on the peninsula. This was recently stated by the president of AvtoVAZ Bu Andersson, but the company did not disclose details. According to Igor Voznyuk, before the well-known events in March 2014, three Lada dealers worked in the Crimea - in Simferopol, Sevastopol and Feodosia. “After changing the status of Crimea, deliveries of new batches from Ukraine became impossible, and sales of Lada cars on the peninsula were virtually stopped,” says the head of UkrAvtoVAZ.

It should be noted that in recent years, AvtoVAZ has significantly lost ground in the Ukrainian market in general and the Crimea in particular. According to Avtostat, in the pre-crisis time, the Lada brand was the permanent leader of the Crimean car market, occupying about 20% of sales. At the end of 2013, Lada did not even enter the Top 10 and was only in the 16th position, while the share of the brand decreased by almost 10 times - to 2.6%.

“Now it’s very difficult to make any forecasts on Lada sales in Crimea, especially considering that since April 2014 supplies to the peninsula have been stopped by almost all market operators,” says Igor Voznyuk. “The answer to the question whether Crimeans are ready to transfer from foreign cars to Lada cars will mainly depend on the price positioning of the brand.”

Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, a UAZ dealer center in Simferopol, and several service stations in the region, owned by the Ukrainian distributor of AIS Group of Companies, have already transferred to Russian jurisdiction for car sales in Crimea. “Crimea was and remains the region where the UAZ brand is present. Deliveries of new cars are already underway,”said Za rulyom. RF in the Sollers holding, which includes the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant.

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Foreign cars with Russian citizenship

Meanwhile, most of the representative offices of foreign car manufacturers refuse to comment on the situation in Crimea. Although some of their dealers have already begun to receive Russian status, resuming official sales of foreign cars on the peninsula. So, Nissan said that the company has two partners in the Crimea (one in Sevastopol and Simferopol), selling and servicing cars. Two Crimean Renault dealers now, according to the agreements, belong to a branch in Ukraine, but in the near future they should go under Russian jurisdiction, told Renault in Russia.

According to Ukrainian media reports, Citroen dealers in Sevastopol and Simferopol were given to the patronage of the Russian representative office, however, Peugeot Citroen Ukraine CEO Loik Sibrak denied this information. “Given the current situation in the region, deliveries of new cars and spare parts by the Peugeot Citroen Ukraine representative office to the dealer centers of the Crimea became impossible primarily in terms of logistics and fulfillment of financial obligations. However, the dealer agreements for 2014 signed by Peugeot Citroen Ukraine with two Crimean dealers were not terminated and are valid until the end of 2014, Sibrak said. At the same time, he did not exclude their further transfer under Russian jurisdiction, noting that dealerships in the Crimea are separate businesses, the further strategy of which is determined by their owners and management based on market conditions.

And the market conditions for today are as follows: Crimean car dealerships cannot work with Ukrainian importers, and in most cases they cannot get official dealerships from Russian distributors. In this situation, many retailers are thinking about selling a business in the Crimea, industry participants say. “Buying local market players is the most likely option for Russian large auto holdings to enter Crimea,” said Irina Kirilushkina, analyst at Atlant-M strategic development department. - Another option is the construction of new dealerships. “Favorit Motors” company has taken such a path, which has already officially announced its plans to open two car dealerships in Simferopol in 2015.”

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Resort for the car industry

However, experts do not expect an active arrival of Russian importers in Crimea, explaining this by the complex logistics and low potential of the local car market. The population of Crimea and Sevastopol is 2.7 million people, and the income level here is much lower than the average for Russia. “The low income level of Crimean residents does not allow them to change their car quite often. In addition, there is a significant seasonality in the amount of income, which also imposes certain restrictions on the purchase of new cars,”says Dmitry Baranov.

According to Avtostat estimates, the potential of the car market in Crimea is 20–25 thousand new cars per year - approximately the same sales volume was observed before the 2008 crisis. So, in 2007, 14.4 thousand new cars were registered in Crimea and 4.6 thousand cars in Sevastopol, which has an autonomous status. In 2008, these figures were even higher - 20.1 thousand units and 6.2 thousand cars, respectively. After the crisis, the car market of Ukraine declined significantly, including in the Crimea - sales fell by almost 4 times, and market recovery was slow.

According to Irina Kirilushkina, with sufficient financial injections from Russia, the Crimean car market can reach the pre-crisis level in a few years. “The market will recover as population incomes grow, positive consumer expectations and the political situation stabilize. However, even with a volume of 20–25 thousand cars, Crimea will make up only about 1% of the Russian market,”she states.

A much more pessimistic forecast is made in RST.ua: in the near future, sales of new cars in Crimea will be able to reach only 10-12 thousand cars per year. At the same time, experts expect changes in the structure of the Crimean car market due to a significant reduction in the flow of tourists this year. “The region generated about 70% of the cash directly from the holiday season, which was then successfully mastered by local retailers. This year, the season was absolutely a failure, and for many even unprofitable, which will greatly affect the purchasing power of the middle class, and hence the capacity of the mid-price segment of the local car market,”RST.ua experts say. In their opinion, in the near future, only the budget segment can become the main driver of sales, since salaries actually increased only among public servants, on which dealers of budget cars can count.

Top 10 leaders of the car market of Crimea and Sevastopol (2013)

Mark Quantity, pcs.
Geely 539
Renault 521
Toyota 461
Kia 452
Hyundai 429
Ford 413
Nissan 376
Zaz 359
Skoda 336
Volkswagen 326
Other 2260
Total 6472

Source: Avtostat

Top 10 leaders of the fleet of Crimea and Sevastopol (as of January 2014)

Mark Quantity, pcs.
Lada 191 834
Moskvich 69 552
Zaz 55 868
Gaz 28, 464
Opel 13 007
Ford 12, 640
Chevrolet 12 532
Daewoo 10 963
Volkswagen 10 905
Toyota 105 72
Other 108 916
Total 525 253

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