A significant queue of cars has formed at the Ukrainian-Hungarian border at the Luzhanka checkpoint (Zakarpattia region). According to eyewitnesses, motorists are forced to wait for many hours under the scorching sun, and traffic is moving extremely slowly — on average, three cars per hour.
People waiting in line complain about the unbearable conditions: lack of basic infrastructure, shortage of drinking water, and lengthy paperwork.
Many note that Ukrainian border guards are sluggish, which leads to a critical slowdown in traffic flow.
“We arrived at the border at 5:30 in the morning, we’ve been standing in the heat for eight hours, the line isn’t moving, this is mockery of citizens,” said a woman in line.
Eyewitnesses emphasize that this situation at the border is damaging Ukraine’s image and actually jeopardizing normal traffic with neighboring EU countries. “We’ve been standing here for over eight hours, the cars are barely moving, border guards are letting through a few cars an hour, and people aren’t being given any information,” one driver told local journalists.
Hundreds of cars periodically start honking en masse in protest against the inaction of border guards, but there is no response and no acceleration of the procedure for letting citizens through.
At the current pace of work at the checkpoint, people can spend a day or more at the border, which is unacceptable in the summer heat and with the high flow of volunteers, tourists, and transit passengers.
In this regard, an urgent response from the authorities is needed. The State Border Service and relevant ministries should immediately take measures to speed up the processing and ensure proper conditions for citizens. Otherwise, the Luzhanka checkpoint risks becoming a symbol of the inefficiency of the Ukrainian border control system.
The volume of passenger car imports to Ukraine, including cargo-passenger vans and racing cars (UKT ZED code 8703), increased by 21.1% in July this year compared to June 2025, to $608.443 million.
According to statistics released by the State Customs Service of Ukraine, China ($147.87 million) became the leader among the three largest suppliers of cars to Ukraine last month, while in June it was not among the top three.
The United States ranked second, with imports from this country increasing by 30% to $106.82 million, and Germany ranked third, with imports of passenger cars increasing slightly to $87.14 million.
Japan did not make it into the top three last month, with imports worth $62.53 million in June.
At the same time, in January-July of this year, passenger cars worth more than $3.16 billion were imported into Ukraine, with Germany ($561.47 million), the US ($525.16 million), and China ($407.67 million) being the largest suppliers.
Imports of passenger cars from other countries during the same period amounted to $1.67 billion.
At the same time, in January-July, Ukraine exported only $4.54 million worth of such vehicles, in particular to the UAE (29.3%), the Czech Republic (15.7%), and Poland (11%).
According to the State Customs Service, passenger cars accounted for 6.89% of total imports to Ukraine in January-July and 0.02% of exports.
As reported, in 2024, passenger cars worth $4.385 billion were imported into Ukraine, 8% more than a year earlier, and $10.1 million worth were exported (2.7 times less).
The top three countries from which the most cars were imported last year were the United States ($817.9 million, an increase of 13.2% compared to 2023), Germany ($682.16 million, an increase of 5.8%), and Japan ($495.71 million, a decrease of 12%).
Sales of new passenger cars in Ukraine in June increased by 23% compared to the same month last year, reaching 6,217 units, according to the Federation of Employers in the Automotive Industry (FAU), citing data from Auto-Consulting.
“This allowed the car market to almost catch up with the results of the first half of 2024 (-0.95%) and offset the market decline at the beginning of the year and in the spring. The car market is finally on a positive track,” the FAU said in a statement on its website.
At the same time, compared to May of this year, sales in June fell by 9.3%.
According to the data, 33,773 passenger cars were sold in Ukraine in January-June.
Since the beginning of 2025, the state-owned PrivatBank (Kyiv) has financed the purchase of new cars worth UAH 2 billion, and the bank’s share in the market for new car loans has reached 44%, according to a press release issued by the financial institution on Monday.
“Currently, every fifth car purchased in Ukraine is financed by a loan, and PrivatBank’s share in the new car loan market since the beginning of 2025 has reached 44%,” commented Dmytro Musienko, member of the bank’s board for retail market issues.
It is noted that most car loans at PrivatBank are taken out in Kyiv (45% of the total), followed by Dnipro (9%), Lviv (6%), and Odesa and Kharkiv (5% each).
According to the bank’s statistics, men are more likely to take out car loans, accounting for 58% of the car loan portfolio. The most active age group is Ukrainians aged 36–45, who account for 43% of customers. The share of customers aged 46 and older is 34%, and young people aged 21–35 account for 23%.
In most cases, car loans are issued for a term of 5 years, and this trend will continue in 2025.
“The trend in 2025 will continue to be an increase in demand for electric cars and hybrids, whose share of cars purchased on credit compared to 2024 will grow to 16% and 18%, respectively,” PrivatBank added.
It is noted that among the most popular brands in Ukraine, Toyota, Hyundai, Skoda, Peugeot, and Mazda cars are most often purchased on credit, as these models are subject to special financing terms.
In mid-December last year, PrivatBank reported that in 2024, it had issued more than 3,000 car loans to individuals for a total amount of over UAH 2.5 billion.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of April 1, 2025, PrivatBank ranked first in terms of total assets with UAH 945.4 billion, or 25.2% among 61 banks.
Retail sales of passenger cars in China in December increased by 12% year-on-year to 2.635 million, according to a report by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Compared to November, they increased by 8.7%.
Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) soared by 37.5% yoy and reached 1.302 million. The figure was up 2.6% compared to November.
NEVs accounted for 49.4% of new cars last month, up from 40.3% in December 2023.
For the whole of 2024, passenger car sales in China increased by 5.5% compared to the same period a year earlier to 22.894 million.
The market of new passenger cars has added 50-60% in 1.5 months amid the government’s initiative to introduce a 15% military tax on car buyers, according to AUTO-Consulting, an information and analytical group.
“It is safe to say that rumors of a 15% additional tax have activated about 4000+ buyers of new cars in 1.5 months. And this added 50-60% to the market. We can’t think of a more effective advertising campaign,” the group said in a statement on its website.
At the same time, in August, AUTO-Consulting recorded a 36 percent increase in sales by August 2023 and a 38 percent increase by July this year – up to 8.3 thousand units, and noted that such a number of cars have not been sold in Ukraine in a month for a long time.
“At the end of July, the beginning of the rush was already recorded, which brought a thousand additional cars to the car market,” the report recalls.
As reported, on July 18, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted to the Rada Bill No. 11416 on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine, which, in particular, proposed to levy 15% of the military tax on car buyers, which was opposed by a number of car business representatives.
In late August, the finalized draft law no longer contained this provision.
AUTO-Consulting notes that not all dealers were ready for such a sharp jump in sales, but the market leader Toyota confidently kept its pace (up 44.5% compared to July), and Renault managed to move up to second place from third in July with a 76.2% increase in sales. BMW has consolidated its position in the top three, while Skoda, which took fourth place, almost doubled its sales.
“It is interesting that for the second month we have seen an abnormal number of electric vehicles – 16%, and some brands of ‘Chinese imports’ have already registered in the top ten,” the group’s analysts note.
At the same time, they suggest that some of these cars were indeed purchased, but a significant amount was simply registered by dealers to avoid the possible consequences of a 15% rise in price during the introduction of the military tax.
“Therefore, we will see the real volume of “electric trains” by the end of September, when the excitement around the new taxes will disappear,” they summarize.
AUTO-Consulting also emphasizes that not only the threat of the military tax has activated the car market – during the month there were large purchases by corporate clients, many cars were bought by the state, so this is a complex result.
