In 2020, Ukrainians purchased and registered 85,500 passenger cars, which is 3% less than in 2019, Ukrainian Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association (Ukrautoprom) said.
“Compared to other European markets, the fall in car sales in Ukraine does not look so dramatic. However, the reason for this is the extremely low consumer activity in the new car market, which developed even before the coronavirus [COVID-19] pandemic, caused by both a fall in the purchasing power of the population focused on the segment of inexpensive cars and the policy of liberalization of imports of used cars, which radically changed the structure of demand in the Ukrainian car market,” according to the association’s website.
According to the association, in the structure of the car market 80% fell on the initial registration of imported used cars and 20% on new cars.
At the same time, in 2020, on the new car market, six out of 12 months showed positive dynamics compared to the same months of the previous year: January (more by 34%), February (more by 21%), June (more by 12%), July (more by 10%), September (more by 6%), and December (more by 7%), while the negative dynamics was formed in March (less by 15%), April (less by 47%), May (less by 15%), August (less by 16%), October (less by 6%) and November (less by 17%).
According to Ukrautoprom, Renault became the market leader for new passenger cars, as in 2019 some 14,360 cars were registered (2% less than a year earlier), and Renault Duster became the best-selling model of this brand with 5,534 registrations.
In second place is Toyota, which increased sales by 6%, to 13,315 cars, including 5,689 compact crossovers Toyota RAV-4, which became the bestseller of the year.
The third result was kept by Kia, despite the drop in registrations by 20% to 6,089 cars. The volume-forming model in Kia sales was Kia Sportage which was chosen by 5,043 buyers.
The fourth place, like a year ago, was given to Skoda, Ukrainians purchased 5,061 cars of this brand (19% less), and the best sales were for Skoda Octavia 1,855 cars.
Hyundai closes the top five (in 2019 it was the sixth) 4,031 cars (21% less), where Hyundai Tucson crossover became the most sold 2,280 cars.
The TOP-10 of the market in 2020 also included: Nissan 3,834 cars (less by 28%); Volkswagen 3,690 cars (less by 21%); Peugeot 3,037 cars (more by 28%); Suzuki 2,966 cars (more by 13%); and Mazda 2,844 cars (more by 15%).
The association said that December of 2020 became a record in terms of sales 9,801 cars, which is 7% more than December of 2019.
The activation of sales in December of 2020 is also noted by the information and analytical group AUTO-Consulting in a message on its website: according to its data, 9,500 cars were sold last month which is 3% more than in December of 2019 and 26, 6% more than in November in 2020.
“This is the maximum monthly sales volume over the past six years. The last time the same amount was sold only in February 2014,” the analysts of the group said.
At the same time, Toyota was the leader in the market in December, which, only by a few cars, beat Renault, and Skoda held the third place with a 39% increase in sales. Kia, which ranked fourth, added 13% in sales, while Peugeot moved up to fifth place (from eighth in November) with a 52% increase in sales.
The best-selling cars in December, according to the group, were Toyota RAV-4 (700 cars), Renault Duster (over 600 cars), and Kia Sportage (almost 500 cars).
According to the group, taking into account December sales, in general in 2020 the market of new passenger cars decreased by 3.3%, to 86,000 cars compared to 2019.
