Initial registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in 2023 increased by 60.6% compared to 2022, to almost 61 thousand, the Ukravtoprom association reported on its Telegram channel on Tuesday.
Toyota took the lead with 10197 cars (+47%), Renault took second place with 5790 (+46%), and Volkswagen took third place with 5627 (2.5 times more).
The top ten also includes Skoda – 4938 cars (+75%); BMW – 4128 (+139%); Hyundai – 2945 (+29%); Mercedes-Benz – 2543 (+52%); Suzuki – 2396 (+192%); Mazda – 2252 (+ 237%) and Nissan – 1975 (+75%).
According to the association, the bestseller of the year was the Renault Duster compact crossover – 5445 cars of this model joined the fleet.
At the same time, in December, Ukrainians purchased 5.9 thousand new passenger cars, which is 53% more than in the same month in 2022 and 9% more than in November 2023. Toyota (972), Renault (678), and Skoda (600) are in the top three.
For its part, the AUTO-Consulting information and analytical group reports on its website that in 2023, more than 65 thousand new passenger cars were sold in Ukraine, which exceeded the result of 2022 by 62.4%.
At the same time, Toyota also took the lead with a 54% increase in sales to 10.74 thousand cars and a market share of 16.5% (against 17.4% a year earlier), and Volkswagen took the second position (against the third in 2022) with a 2.3-fold increase in sales to 7.09 thousand cars and an increase in market share by 2.2 percentage points to 10.9%.
Renault came in third with 5.83 thousand cars sold (up 45.2%).
According to experts, 6 thousand new cars were sold in December, which is slightly (0.5%) less than in November.
“The consequences of the border blockade were felt, but still, compared to December, the market grew by 45%,” the report states.
At the same time, Toyota was definitely in the lead with sales of more than 1 thousand new cars and 17% of the Ukrainian car market, Volkswagen finished second, but, as AUTO-Consulting notes, both official dealers and suppliers of electric vehicles from the Chinese market worked for this result.
The most popular model in December was the Renault Duster, which managed to bypass the Volkswagen ID.4 electric car, which had been leading the way throughout the fall.
As a result, Renault increased its sales by 40% overall, taking third place in the month’s ranking.
Experts also note the success of the Audi brand, whose dealers managed to outperform competitors among premium brands and take 7th place in the market (against 12th in November 2023).
In general, AUTO-Consulting believes that despite the difficulties at the Polish border, which made it difficult to supply cars in the planned volumes, 2023 was “the year of renewal of the Ukrainian car market and growth of its potential.”
“The recovery of the car market was even better than the trend of 2014-2016. The result is similar to 2016, when 64.5 thousand cars were sold. However, it took seven long years to reach 103.6 thousand cars (as in pre-war 2021),” says Oleg Omelnytsky, director of AUTO-Consulting, on his Facebook page.
He noted that in the last two months of last year, a very high share of electric vehicles in the market was recorded – almost 20% (compared to 10% in 2022 and 1.5% in 2021).
“In addition, the share of so-called “gray” dealers has increased significantly – 21%. The last time I remember this was in the 90s and early 2000s,” he wrote.
As reported, according to Ukravtoprom, in 2022, Ukrainians registered 37.9 thousand new passenger cars, 63% less than a year earlier, and according to AUTO-Consulting, sales decreased by 61.5% to 40.08 thousand units.
Sales of new passenger cars in Ukraine in May 2022 increased by 2.1 times compared to April – up to 2.7 thousand units, but by May 2021 the drop was 69%, reports AUTO-Consulting.
“May brought quite good results for the new passenger car market. For the second month in a row, the market has almost doubled compared to the previous month. However, sales figures were 69% lower than in May 2021,” according to the website of the information and analytical group .
At the same time, according to its data, the decline in sales since the beginning of this year has slowed down a bit: 15.5 thousand cars were sold in five months (61% less), and dealer networks began to work actively.
By the end of May, Toyota became the sales leader, which managed to increase sales by 2.6 times compared to April (up to 412 cars), and this breakthrough made it possible to get ahead of Renault, which took second place in May with sales growth of 45% – up to 290 units. .
According to AUTO-Consulting, Volkswagen and Skoda are steadily increasing sales (keeping the third and fourth positions in the ranking with a 2.3-fold increase in sales by April and 90% respectively), which do not have problems with logistics.
Sales of Hyundai, which returned to fifth place (from sixth in April), also increased by almost 2.8 times, while BMW dealers more than tripled sales, which made it possible to move to sixth place against eighth a month earlier.
According to statistics provided by analysts, Nissan improved its position in the rating, increasing sales by 2.8 times – up to 120 units, and Kia managed to climb to eighth place from 14th in April with a growth of 3.6 times – up to 115 cars. Volvo dealers showed a significant improvement in their position, with sales growing from 7 cars in April to 51 in May.
“So the car market is reviving and gaining momentum, and this is a good sign. However, not all operators have yet been able to build new logistics and there is a subsidence in the market,” the group’s experts state.
They draw attention to the changing priorities of new car buyers during the war: if the Toyota Rav4 and Renault Duster are the constant leaders in sales, then in May the Kia Rio, Skoda Kodiaq and Toyota Yaris Cross also became leaders.
“May will be a record in the share of sales of electric vehicles. Ukrainian buyers have scooped up almost all available electric cars,” AUTO-Consulting emphasizes.
As reported with reference to Auto-Consulting data, in 2021 the market for new passenger cars grew by 20% to 103.65 thousand units.
Sales of new passenger cars in October this year decreased by 8% compared to the same month last year and by 14% from September this year, to 8,000 units, AUTO-Consulting reports.
“The reason for a decrease was the shortage of cars due to the crisis with microchips in the global auto industry. In October, it also covered the Ukrainian car market and knocked down sales of most operators. But there were also those who decided to take advantage of the shortage of cars from competitors and, on the contrary, increased sales,” the report says.
Toyota retained its leadership in the market in October, but the auto deficit reduced its indicators by 18% from September 2021 – to 1,243 units. The second and third places, as before, also were occupied by Renault (sales dropped by 27%, to 920 units) and Kia (minus 33%, to 669 units).
At the same time, China’s Chery moved to the fourth position in the ranking (from the eighth in September) with a 25% increase in sales, to 488 cars.
Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Nissan retained their positions, while Mitsubishi added 3% in sales compared to September.
According to the analysts of the group, the further picture of the location of the brands fixes not so much the market result as the amount of car stocks at dealerships and their outflow/arrival.
“Not so many car brands were able to take advantage of the deficit of competitors. It is clearly seen that so far Chinese manufacturers are benefiting from the chip crisis, since almost all of them have recorded a stable growth in sales,” the source said.
According to it, a total of 84,000 new passenger cars were sold in Ukraine in January-October, which is 22% more than in the same period last year and is almost equal to the indicator for the entire last year.
“So 2021 will already be a positive year, despite the quarantines and chip crises,” the experts said.
