The Stellantis group in Ukraine (Peugeot, Citroёn, Opel, DS Automobiles) sold 4,689 cars in January-June of this year, which is 35.17% more than in the same period of 2020, increasing its share in the Ukrainian market of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles to 8.35% from 8.29% a year earlier, the press service of the group told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, the press service of the company states that in general, sales in the car market during this period also increased by more than a third – by 34.2%, to 53,800 units.
“The automobile market of Ukraine in 2021 shows a constant growth in sales. The deferred demand from 2020, the opening of car dealerships after the lockdowns, the debut of numerous new products, and the development of corporate sales had a positive effect,” the group said in a press release.
At the same time, passenger cars accounted for about 90% of sales on the market (or 48,600 units), commercial – almost 10% (or 5,200 vehicles). Private buyers bought 64% of cars, corporate clients – almost 36% of total sales.
According to Stellantis in Ukraine, while maintaining the current dynamics of market growth, 2021 may end at a milestone: more than 100,000 cars. The company’s success in selling its brands is associated with an active marketing and advertising policy, participation in exhibitions, the constant introduction of new models, the development of corporate sales and related services.
Bentley Kyiv, the only official dealership of Bentley Motors in Ukraine, plans to sell 63 cars in 2021, while last year it managed to sell 37 cars, Director of the center Oleksiy Kaplaty has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“In the year of the pandemic, when there was a rather difficult situation on the market, this is very indicative. Some markets, for example the European, lost their shares, but we grew and grew very strongly,” he told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of last year on the sidelines of a press conference on Wednesday held on the occasion of the debut of the Ukrainian racer Ivan Peklin at the first stage of the International GT Open.
The director said that this year there are plans to sell 48 new cars and 15 used ones. According to him, the company places great emphasis on working with used cars.
Commenting on the receipt of two awards for the best Bentley Motors dealers in Europe – Best of Sales 2020 and Best of Marketing & Communications 2020 – by Bentley Kyiv in April, Kaplaty said that this is due to a significant excess of the sales target of 30 vehicles.
The head of the dealership said that Bentley Kyiv was actively working on pricing, as a result of which they managed to make prices in the domestic market competitive: the purchase price of a car in Bentley Kyiv will be lower than that of a European dealer with its official import and customs clearance.
“This is the result of the work that we carried out with Bentley, telling about our share, our investments. Investments in this building [the largest dealership in Europe near the Boryspil airport with an area of 1700 sq. m.] is about $5.5 million. Accordingly Bentley has confidence in such partners as the Winner group of companies, Kaplaty said.
As for marketing, he said that success in this category became possible thanks to non-standard events, such as the presentation of the updated Bentley Bentayga at the Kyiv Fortress Museum.
The director of the center added that 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, made fundamental changes in advertising promotion, but the company was ready for this. “I can confidently say that about 40% of our budgets are focused on digital: promotion in electronic networks, social networks,” he said, pointing out that most of the traditional public events were at risk of failure or were not held.
Speaking about market share, Kaplaty said that the main goal set by Bentley in all regions is to occupy a share of at least 12% in the segment of luxury and premium cars. “As of today, according to the results of the first quarter, we hold a share of about 13%, that is, we are growing and strengthening our position,” the director of Bentley Kyiv said.
When asked about new trends for luxury brands, he said that this year the center will officially unveil two new models with hybrid engines – the Bentley Flying Spur and the Bentley Bentayga. The green and renewable materials trend is at the heart of Bentley’s 2030 strategy, he said.
Winner Group Ukraine has been operating on the Ukrainian market for over 28 years, during this time more than 140,000 cars have been sold and more than 50 dealerships have been opened in Ukraine. In August 2016, an agreement of intent was signed with the Bentley brand in Ukraine. Bentley Kyiv is the only official dealer for the sale and service of Bentley on the territory of Ukraine. The official opening of the Bentley Kyiv dealership took place on July 10, 2019.
Winner Imports Ukraine, a member of the group, is the official importer of Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche and Bentley cars in Ukraine, and in the third quarter of this year it intends to introduce the MG auto brand (property of the Chinese SAIC Motor) to the Ukrainian market.
Ivan Peklin is a 19-year-old pilot from Kyiv who started racing for the Italian Lazarus Team in Bentley Continental GT3 this year.
In his debut race at this year’s first International GT Open on May 15 in France, he took first place with teammate Jordan Pepper from South Africa.
PJSC Kriukiv Car Building Works (KCBW, Poltava region) completed 2020 with a net profit of UAH 99.045 million, which is 87.5% less, year-over-year, according to preliminary data.
According to the information on the agenda of the shareholders’ general meeting on April 22, released on Monday in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine, the draft of its decision is planned to send the profit to the development of the enterprise, not to pay dividends (as in the previous year).
As reported, in 2020 the plant reduced the production of freight cars by 70%, to 1,569 units.
PJSC Kriukiv Car Building Works is the only enterprise in the CIS that has a well-established and operating production of two types of cars: passenger and freight (platform cars, tanks, bunker-type cars, gondola cars). It also produces regional diesel trains, high-speed interregional locomotive-hauled trains, spare parts and bogies for freight cars.
State-controlled Oschadbank (Kyiv) in 2020 issued 4,000 car loans for a total of UAH 1.9 billion, which is 11.8% more than in 2019 (UAH 1.7 billion), the press service of has bank has said.
The bank reportedly issues car loans for up to seven years and with a minimum advance payment of 10%.
It is indicated that Oschadbank cooperates with more than 500 dealer centers throughout the country.
According to the bank, among the cars that were purchased on credit from Oschadbank, the favorites in 2020 were Toyota, Mazda, Suzuki, Nissan, Skoda, Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Honda, Subaru, Renault, Peugeot and Fiat.
Oschadbank was founded in 1991. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of October 1, 2020, in terms of total assets (UAH 266.29 billion) Oschadbank ranked second among 74 banks operating in the country.
In the Novohrad-Volynsky region, law enforcement officers caught up and forcibly stopped a Nissan minibus, which contained 27 bags of amber, the police communication department of Zhytomyr region reports.
“At about 20:00 on 255 kilometer of the Kyiv-Chop highway, near Povchyno village, Novohrad-Volynsky district, the patrolmen forcibly stopped a Nissan car. Moving through the territory of Rivne region, the driver violated several traffic rules and did not stop at the request of the police, so they decided to catch up with him and check. As it turned out, the driver avoided talking to the police because of the cargo in the minibus,” a message on the police website says.
So, when inspecting the car, it turned out that the driver was transporting 27 bags of stones that looked like raw amber. However, in order to avoid administrative and criminal liability, the driver, 51-year-old resident of Chernivtsi region, offered the police EUR 1,000 of inappropriate benefits.
The discovered stones were seized and transferred for safekeeping at the State Directorate of the National Police in Zhytomyr region, an expert study was appointed.
The pretrial investigation is carried out in accordance with Article 240-1 (illegal extraction, sale, acquisition, transfer, shipment, transportation, processing of amber) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The police also documented the circumstances of improper benefits offer to the patrolmen. On this fact, criminal proceedings have been initiated under Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Due to lockdown restrictions in April-May 2020, some 55% of car owners reduced the number of trips made with a privately owned car, while 26% of respondents reduced the number of trips by more than 40%, according to the results of a sociological survey conducted by Factum Group on demand of A-95 Consulting Group, the group said in a press release.
In addition, Factum Group conducted the sociological survey in three stages, namely, at the end of March, when lockdown restrictions were the strictest, in April and May, when the population’s activity began to increase sharply.
At the beginning of the survey, the number of respondents who reduced fuel consumption by personal vehicles was 46.4%, this figure increased to 55% in May.
A fifth of the car owners surveyed said that lockdown did not affect the intensity of personal vehicles’ use. However, some 24% of respondents, on the contrary, increased the number of trips for that period.
According to the results of the Factum Group survey, more than half of the respondents positively evaluated the safety measures taken by filling station’s operators during lockdown.
In addition, Factum Group studied consumer sentiment, according to which the price remains the key criterion for choosing filling stations for 44% of car owners. About a third of the respondents are ready to change the usual operator of fuel station in case of a difference in price from UAH 3 to UAH 5 per a liter. A quarter of respondents value the brand of the filling station chain and its reputation the most.
According to the analysts of the A-95 Consulting Group, the price gap that has developed between different filling station chains, largely redistributed sales.”Lockdown in Ukraine has strengthened the polarization of petroleum products consumers, namely, already 44% of car owners are ready to change the usual filling station to cheaper one, while traditionally this figure does not exceed 30%. According to our data, the filling station chains, which are discount stations lost less the volume of sales compared to brand chains with high price positions,” the group said in the press release, citing analyst at A-95 Consulting Group Artem Kuyun.
