Business news from Ukraine

“Ukravtoprom” records 60.6% growth in demand for new passenger cars over past year

2 January , 2024  

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.

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