In 2023, the Stellantis representative office in Ukraine (Peugeot, Citroёn, Opel, DS Automobiles, Jeep) sold approximately 5.1 thousand new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in the dealer network, taking more than 7% of the market, the representative office’s press service reports.
As reported, in 2022, the share of Stellantis brands, whose sales amounted to 3 thousand units, accounted for 6.84% of the passenger car and light commercial vehicle market.
Thus, in 2023, car sales of the five brands increased by almost 70%, and the market share increased slightly, given that the market for new passenger cars and LCVs grew by 63.5% by 2022 to 65.1 thousand units (including 65.1 thousand passenger cars and about 7.4 thousand commercial vans/vans).
“Thus, the total growth of Stellantis brands exceeded the growth of the new car market in Ukraine by 6%. Moreover, the end of the year was very positive: in December, sporadic sales growth allowed Stellantis to take 9.7% of the market, which may signal a steady increase in sales in 2024,” the press service said.
According to the representative office, Peugeot became the sales leader among the brands (in 2022, Citroen won this position from it – IF-U) with a 74% increase in sales to 2.17 thousand units, which allowed it to take about 3% of the car market (in 2022 – 2.81%).
The best-selling models were the crossovers Peugeot 3008 (470 units) and Peugeot 2008 (348 units), while vans and venereologists Peugeot Boxer (294 units), Peugeot Partner (168 units) and Peugeot Rifter (144 units) were consistently popular.
Among passenger cars, the Peugeot 301 sedan (198 units) and the new Peugeot 408 crossover fastback (194 units sold in less than a year on the market) were good sellers.
In addition, the company considers the launch of a completely new product – the Peugeot Landtrek pickup truck – a success (225 vehicles sold in less than a year).
Sales of the Citroen brand increased by 58% to more than 2 thousand units, which allowed it to take 2.8% of the market (in 2022 – 2.87%).
Among passenger cars, the most popular models were the large Citroen C5 Aircross crossover (386 units sold), the Citroen C-Elysee sedan (340 units) and the Citroen C3 compact hatchback (196 units), and among commercial vehicles – the large Citroen Jumper (498 units) and the compact Citroen Berlingo (368 units).
“Thanks to the wide LCV lineup, Citroen is becoming a leader in sales of special vehicles and converted vehicles,” the press release states.
Sales of the German brand Opel, according to Stellantis Ukraine, increased by 96.5% last year to 890 units, with a market share of 1.2%, and the best-selling vehicles were the compact Opel Combo (344 units) and the mid-size crossover Opel Grandland (297 units). The compact crossovers Opel Mokka (104 units) and Opel Crosland (74 units) were in good demand.
The premium brand DS Automobiles sold 69 units (in 2022 – 62 units), with the largest number of DS 4 hatchbacks sold (47 units).
The company considers its relaunch by a new importer to be the main achievement for the Jeep brand in the Ukrainian market.
“The comprehensive ‘relaunch’ of the brand in Ukraine took place at the end of 2023, so Jeep’s sales results are not yet indicative. However, 2024 should demonstrate the full strength of the brand, especially given the replenishment of the model lineup,” the press release says.
As reported, the lineup for the brand launch has been formed, price lists have been announced, and new dealerships are starting to operate in the largest cities of Ukraine.
“This year, the model lineup will be complemented by the compact crossover Jeep Avenger, which is already on the market,” the press release said.
The report reminds that Stellantis Ukraine has been providing free repairs of state and municipal vehicles since March 2022: 2.7 thousand vehicles have been repaired to date, more than 10.5 thousand applications for repairs and maintenance have been submitted, and the total cost of work exceeds UAH 75 million.
Stellantis was formed in mid-January 2021 as a result of the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA).
According to the AUTO-Consulting information and analytical group, Stellantis Ukraine ranked fourth in the rating of the largest Ukrainian passenger car market operators in 2023 with a share of 7.1% (after Toyota Ukraine, Renault Ukraine, and UkrAVTO), up from fifth in 2022.
In 2022, sales of new passenger cars and LCVs of four brands (excluding Jeep) in the Stellantis Ukraine dealer network decreased by 73%, and the market share decreased by 2.7 percentage points.
The Japanese company Honda wants to increase its presence in the Ukrainian market, said Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Serhiy Korsunsky.
“Today, a meeting with representatives of Honda has been held at the embassy. They are striving to increase their presence on the Ukrainian market. Our advice is to support the liberalization of bilateral trade, expand the dealer network, invest in the production of final products, and attract Ukrainian IT companies to create software for cars and motorcycles,” Korsunsky wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
He also noted that the embassy advised the company’s representatives to pay attention to the regions of Ukraine, where there is a high production culture in the field of mechanical engineering.
Participants in the market where used cars from the United States are sold intend to create the Ukrainian Association of Transport, Service and Repair with the aim of participating in making legislative changes in the car market in order to avoid initiatives that create obstacles to buying inexpensive cars and raise their prices.
“We plan to make an influential body that will participate in drafting bills, amendments and additions related to the car industry, in discussions of planned legislative changes that may restrict the sale of cars with the relevant ministries,” Head of the association, co-founder of Columb Trade Pavlo Kazaryan said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.
According to lawyer Roman Voloshyn, the main goal of the association is to simplify business activities and opportunities for buyers as much as possible in order to reduce the cost of registration and purchase of such cars.
He said that the need to create an association arose after the car market participants managed to achieve the abolition of the planned ban on imports of cars to Ukraine after a road accident, which a draft government resolution developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and published on its website contained.
After a public outcry, the government decided to abandon this idea of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the recently published updated text of the resolution on the registration of the vehicle no longer contains “scandalous provisions” prohibiting registrations of cars marked with the recycling label, as well as the need to translate accompanying documents into the state language with an apostille.
Meanwhile, as noted by the co-founder of the association, Volodymyr Kovel, negative changes have occurred since the publication of the resolution (February 2020), in particular, according to the surveys they conducted, about 72% of potential customers refused to buy a car from the United States in order to avoid risk and they overpaid 30% of the cost for the purchase of a car from Georgia and Europe or bought a car in a condition that was not desired.
In addition, he said that taxi services operating hybrids and electric cars received less money from investors for the purchase of cars and the development of the business, large contracts for the supply of spare parts from China, the United States and Germany were canceled due to the risk of closing the business, some companies were closed because customers stopped to sign transactions due to confusion, and dozens of service stations could go bankrupt, as they took large loans for business development.
“When we united to solve the problem, created a petition on the president’s website, which received more than 18,000 votes, many companies joined us, and we were heard by the state, we realized that it was necessary to create an association that would participate in the development of legislative changes, both taking into account the wishes of business and the authorities, that is, to find a compromise,” Kazaryan said.
According to him, the association intends to unite companies selling used cars from the United States, forwarding and brokerage companies, suppliers of spare parts, service stations and local carriers, as well as transport companies and taxi services.
“Any intention to amend the legislation affects the business, the pricing policy, and its entrepreneurs are afraid of such rumors in the market even more than inspections. The association is also needed in order to bring as many market participants to work legally and explain advantages of such work. I want about 85% of companies to work openly in a couple of years,” Voloshyn said.
According to him, after the publication of the draft resolution, the demand for cars from the United States in Ukraine fell due to the fact that people did not understand whether it was worth buying now, how to redo the documents, whether it would be registered.
“After the changes were removed, the percentage of purchases started to grow by 5-10% every day, and we have already reached the average monthly purchases that were before,” he said.
Asked about the impact of the situation with the spread of coronavirus in this country and lockdown restrictions on the business of selling cars (with a recycling label) from the United States, Kovel said that, of course, after the phases of falling prices for cars meant for recycling and the devastation of the market, prices increased, logistics due to temporary quarantine in ports has become more complicated.
“However, now the situation in the United States is leveling off, and prices are returning to the level before the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, there was no big decline in this area, and the expected changes in legislation brought much more losses,” Kovel said.
He recalled that taking into account monthly deliveries of about 10,000 cars from the United States, $327.8 million annually comes to the budget, and the total volume of the market of cars from the United States, taking into account all related services, is $836.64 million.
He named the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat cars assembled in Mexico, as well as the Ford Focus and Fusion cars the most popular.
Ukrainians in January-February 2020 registered 61,000 imported used cars, which is almost 4.4 times higher than new car sales (14,000 cars), Ukrautoprom has reported. In January-February of 2020, the most popular passenger car among imported used cars was Volkswagen Passat with 3,585 cars registered.
Renault Megane (3,485 cars) took the second place, Skoda Octavia was in the third place with a result of 3,307 cars, then Volkswagen Golf (2,675 registrations) and Ford Focus with 2,310 registered cars.
As reported, in 2019, due to the provided legislative preferences, the primary registrations of imported used cars grew by 3.3 times from 2018, to 400,597 cars, while the new passenger cars market grew by only 14%, to 78,386 cars.
Primary registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in January-August 2019 grew by 2% year-over-year, to 54,600, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
Sales growth in August of this year by 12.5% compared to August of 2018, to 8,300 cars, contributed to the positive pace over the January-August period.
“This is the best result for the domestic market over the past 19 months,” the association said.
The leader of August – Renault – improved the result of the same month by 44% to 1,422 cars, Toyota ranked second, registrations of which grew by 20% to 1,175 cars, and the KIA brand moved up to the third position with sales growth of 71%, up to 817 cars.
Skoda was fourth with 601 cars sold (a rise of 49%), and Nissan maintained fifth position despite a 5% drop in sales (to 472 cars).
Ukrautoprom said that over the past summer season in Ukraine, 22,400 new passenger cars were registered.
Meanwhile, the AUTO-Consulting information and analytical group, analyzing car sales last month, said that sales growth amounted to 6.3%, to 8,200 cars, even compared to the successful July of 2019, and compared to August 2018, they grew by 19.8%.
The top three of the month at AUTO-Consulting coincides with Ukrautoprom’s, and the group’s sensation of the month is Peugeot’s breakthrough in eighth place (11th in July), with a 25.4% increase in sales, to 247 vehicles compared with July 2019.
The sales of Renault cars, the leader of the Ukrainian market of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, increased by 35% in January-June this year compared to the same period of 2018, to 6,600 units, while the market during this period grew by 0.2%, to 42,600 units, Director General of Renault Ukraine LLC Francois Marriott has said.
“Renault’s share of the passenger and commercial auto market has grown to 15.5% compared with 11.5% in the first half of last year, and we want to keep these rates until the end of this year. We are confident that we will be able to remain the market leader for the fifth year in a row [in 2018 the share was 12.5%],” he said at a press conference in Kyiv.
At the same time, he stressed that the Ukrainian market of new cars today is in a state of stagnation, and the main reason for this is a significant increase in registrations of used cars. He said Renault had the best dynamics of market share growth among all car brands.
The expert noted that the company’s forecast for the market of new passenger and commercial cars for the current year is 90,000 units (in 2018 some 87,000 cars).
“If to analyze the situation for 2018 and the six months of this year, then for one sold new car there are three registered used imported vehicles, which are unsafe on the roads and do not meet environmental standards,” he said.
