Ukraine in 2020 imported 531,400 vehicles worth more than $ 4.2 billion, including 486,300 passenger cars for almost $ 3.5 billion, Ukrautoprom reported.
“Compared to 2019, import of passenger cars decreased by 11%,” the association’s website says.
The largest supplier of passenger cars last year was Germany, from where 99,772 cars were imported for $ 548.1 million.
Imports of trucks and special vehicles last year decreased by 16%, to 43,500 units, and the suppliers of these vehicles earned $ 717.4 million against $ 841.9 million a year earlier. In this segment, Germany was also the largest supplier with 9,589 vehicles for $ 114 million.
The purchase of buses abroad cost Ukraine $ 64.1 million: 1,600 buses were purchased, which is 35% less than a year earlier.
“Despite the fact that the largest number of buses in 2020 came to Ukraine from Germany (568 units), Belarus earned more than others from the supply of this type of transport – $ 38.6 million for 307 buses,” the association says.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has approved some fiscal incentives for the development of electric transport in Ukraine, in particular, VAT and import duty exemption from 2021 until 2028 for equipment and spare parts for own production of electric transport (passenger cars, electric buses, electric trucks and special-purpose vehicles).
Bill No. 3476 amending the Tax Code and bill No. 3477 amending the Customs Code were passed at the first reading by 316 and 308 lawmakers respectively.
The proposed exemption will not apply only to equipment for the production of trolleybuses, because their output has already been established in Ukraine.
In addition, bill No. 3476 proposes to exempt the electrical industry companies selling electric motors for the production of electric vehicles (with the exception of trolleybuses), lithium-ion batteries, chargers, as well as automobile companies selling electric cars of their own production from paying income tax until December 31, 2033.
The bill proposes to extend or expand benefits for importers and buyers of electric vehicles.
It is proposed, in particular, to extend the VAT exemption for import and/or supply of electric cars until December 31, 2025 (currently the benefit is valid until the end of 2022).
A buyer of an electric car before December 31, 2030 is also offered to be exempted from paying the mandatory pension insurance fee, be provided with a tax discount on the payment of personal income tax, but these standards are proposed to be introduced from January 1, 2026.
According to an explanatory note to the bills, there is a sufficient industrial potential of Ukraine in the production of electric vehicles. In particular, there are five bus plants, a truck plant, and the facilities, which produce 300,000 passenger cars at three plants.
However, today the government is stimulating the import of electric vehicles, not their production. In particular, from January 1, 2016, there is no import duty, exemption from VAT is extended until 2022 and the excise rate is set at EUR 1 per 1 kW/h of battery capacity.
“The introduction of preferential taxation increased the import of electric vehicles from 1,706 vehicles in 2016 to 7,542 vehicles in 2019, but used electric vehicles are dominating in the market (93% in 2019),” the authors of the bills said.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES, EQUIPMENT, IMPORTED, PARLIAMENT, PRODUCTION
The Economy Secretariat (Secretaría de Economía) of Mexico has announced the launch of an administrative procedure for reviewing safeguard duties imposed on hot rolled sheets originated from Ukraine and Russia.
According to the announcement made on March 26, 2020 on official website of the Mexican government bulletin, the duties are being reviewed as the duties imposed earlier expired.
According to the document, safeguard duties on hot rolled sheets were imposed by Mexico on March 28, 2000 in the amount of 46.66% for Ukraine and 30.31% for Russia. On March 17, 2006, the duties were extended. After the new revision on September 8, 2011 it was decided to cut the duties for Ukraine to 25% and to 21% for Russia. On January 28, 2016 it was decided to extend the duties.
Ukrainians registered 23,000 imported used passenger cars in September, which is 3.2 times more than the registrations of new passenger cars in the same month, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
Compared with September 2018 registrations of imported used passenger cars grew 2.3 times, and their share of the primary market grew from 60% to 76%.
The most popular car was Volkswagen Passat (1,460 cars registered). Renault Megane with 1,315 cars, and Skoda Octavia with 1,203 cars was third.
Volkswagen Golf with 912 registrations was fourth and Ford Focus with 789 used cars registered was fifth.
The association said that since the start of 2019, 321,600 imported used passenger cars have been registered in Ukraine, which is 4.5 times more than a year ago. The new passenger car market over the period was only 61,700 cars.
On September 12, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada repeatedly postponed the application of fines for owners of cars with foreign license plates for 90 days.
The primary registrations of imported used cars in Ukraine in January-June 2019 totaled 250,100, which is almost six times more than a year ago, the Ukrautoprom association has reported.
The Volkswagen brand remains the leader of registrations in the first six months of 2019 (48,793), Opel is in the second position (24,414), Audi is third (19,072), Renault is fourth (18,822), and Skoda is fifth (17,766.).
According to the association, in June, the Ukrainians registered 19,200 imported used cars, which was the lowest since the beginning of the year, but compared to June last year, registration increased 2.2-fold.
Cars aged from 5 to 10 accounted for the largest share in the registrations of used imported cars – 46%. Cars older than 10 years covered 35% of the June market, the remaining 19% were cars under the age of five years.
The most popular Volkswagen brand registered 2,960 vehicles last month, followed by Skoda (1,742), Renault (1,588), Ford (1,393) and Opel (1,321).
BRAND, IMPORTED, LEADER, REGISTRATIONS, USED CARS, VOLKSWAGEN
The market of imported alcohol in Ukraine in 2019 will grow by 8-10%, Bayadera Group, one of the largest alcohol companies in the Ukrainian market, predicts.
“According to experts, the imported alcohol market in 2019 will grow by 8-10%. Significant development is expected in the segment of foreign wines, while premium and luxury brands will have a steady increase of 2-3%,” the press service of Bayadera Group reported.
According to Bayadera Group, the structure of the import market in Ukraine has changed towards still wines (25%) and whiskey (20%). Sparkling wine and champagne (15% each) rank third among imported alcohol, brandy and cognac (about 12%) rank fourth, while rum (10%) is fifth.
According to the report, Bayadera Group imports almost all categories of alcohol, sales of imported products in 2018 increased by 17%. The main imports are Italian, French, Spanish, Chilean and German wines. The company intends in 2019 to focus on manufacturers, with which it already works, it does not plan to bring new large brands to the market.
