THE MOST ACTIVE REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ON THE CAR RECYCLING PROGRAM
A story without end
The need for a certain state program that would provide a serious discount when buying a new car to replace old junk was scrapped, officials at the Ministry of Natural Resources started talking at the beginning of 2009. Then things didn’t go beyond good intentions. However, in the world and in the country the economic crisis was raging. Extraordinary measures had to be taken - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the recycling program (let's call it for short PU) to be launched on a public holiday, March 8, 2010.
11 billion rubles were allocated for it. The effect of the market revival was already evident in April, and by August last year, the allocated money came to an end - ahead of schedule (it was planned that it would be enough before the end of the year). Then the Prime Minister signed another decree - on the allocation of 10 billion rubles for the second phase of the program. At the end of the year, it became clear: the market came to life. At the end of 2010, more than 1.7 million new cars were sold.
But, apparently, the government decided to play it safe and again extended the validity of the PU, adding another 5 billion rubles to it. Here, high officials have calmed down: they announced that the market will further develop independently. “The smooth exit from state support measures for the Russian car market is the main challenge that we will have to answer this year,” said Alexei Rakhmanov, head of the automotive industry department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in early February.
But in March, Prime Minister V. Putin unexpectedly announced that he considered it possible to extend the program until the end of this year - and ordered to add another 5 billion rubles to it. They say that such a decision was pushed by the head of the Republic of Udmurtia A. Volkov, being able to prove that it will help to get the IzhAvto plant on its feet. Like it or not, it no longer matters. The main thing is that PU, for which the state allocated more than 30 billion rubles, really helped our manufacturers to survive in difficult times and contributed to the restoration of the Russian car market.
Who did win
Today, the list of domestic-made cars available within the framework of PU includes almost a hundred models of twenty brands. It is clear that the main demand fell on the “frets” - 60% of all cars sold under this program. AvtoVAZ has become, as it is now fashionable to put it, its main beneficiary, that is, a beneficiary. Very indicative data for the past year.
SALES OF CARS "LADA" in 2010
At AvtoVAZ, domestic sales grew by almost 48% (to 517, 147 cars); In exchange for junk, the plant delivered 221, 584 cars (44% of the total). And the “classic” (VAZ-2105/2107), which they were going to withdraw from production back in 2009, turned out to be the most popular in the country according to the results of 2010: its sales doubled to more than 136 thousand cars. Other traditional manufacturers have also risen noticeably. GAZ Group reports that in 2010, the program sold 4, 110 light commercial vehicles (6.7% of all sales) and 2, 601 Cyber cars (every second!). In total, GAZ sold 8064 “software” cars for the year. “Sollers” for the year of operation PU sold 10 thousand cars in addition (11% of all sales). UAZ won more than others: plus 5.5 thousand off-road vehicles.
By the way, today IzhAvto, mentioned above, has become yet another major beneficiary of PU. For the first quarter of this year, 6.1 thousand VAZ-2104, -2107 cars and Izh-27175 vans were assembled in Izhevsk; the lion's share of these machines found their customers precisely thanks to PU.
Among foreign companies, the leader in terms of “software sales” is Renault: since the launch of the PU to March 8, 2011, it accounted for 35, 938 certificates. With them, Renault in the overall statistics of the program occupies about 6%. For the rest of the “foreigners”, the share of new cars purchased under PU does not exceed 2% at best.
In total, over a year, half a million Russians became the owners of new cars in return for the junk delivered. And this, of course, is the main achievement. And on our roads (in the yards, on the side of the road) half a million ancient kolyms were reduced.
SALE OF PASSENGER CARS BY THE DISPOSAL PROGRAM (PU)
What's next?
The program in its current form will probably work until the end of 2011 - in any case, until the 100 thousand certificates allocated by the government for 5 billion rubles are allotted by the government. Another 40 thousand certificates were, for various reasons, damaged or unclaimed; there are no doubt owners for them. The deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Andrei Dementyev, is confident that “the Russian car market has long since resumed its growth after the crisis” and “we won’t get the pullback that our colleagues in Germany and a number of euro-countries received.”
In general, Russia nurses its carmakers longer than others: in other countries, such stimulation of demand did not last long and has already stopped everywhere. For example, in the USA, the Cash for Clunkers campaign lasted only two months (July-August 2009). True, they spent on it more than ours - almost 3 billion dollars. In Germany, the state budget expenditures amounted to 1.5 billion euros for the year of the implementation of such a program. The last action of its PU stopped China - in December last year; in Europe, they ended in late 2009 and early 2010.
