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Cars: Logan, Duster and Sandero, in top 25 of best sold cars in Russia
Duster, Logan and Sandero were in the top of best sold 25 models in Russia, in February, according to data published by the Association of European Businesses (AEB) on Thursday. However, deliveries of automobiles and light commercial vehicles in that market dropped by 13.4% to 111,145 units, on the background of problems faced by economy and the depreciation of the rouble, Reuters informs.
The rate of the annual sales slowed down significantly by 13%, being the lowest level in the last 14 months.
Joerg Schreiber, the president of AEB said that a good evolution of sales was expected in the following weeks.
Last month, Solaris from Hyundai ranked first in the top of best sold cars in Russia (8,130 vehicles), followed by Rio from Kia (7,017 units), Lada Granta manufactured by AvtoVAZ (6,335 units) and Duster with 4,197 vehicles. Sandero and Logan ranked 11th and 12th with 2,260 and 2,225 units.
Duster, Logan and Sandero are manufactured by Renault.
In the first two months of the year there were 193,072 automobiles and light commercial vehicles sold in Russia, on the drop by 20.8% compared to the same period of 2015. This year demand will probably drop by 4.7% to 1.53 million vehicles, according to Schreiber, the president of AEB.
On Monday, the Renault-Nissan alliance announced that Bo Inge Andersson intended to resign from the position of general manager at AvtoVAZ.
The AvtoVAZ board will meet on March 15 to announce the replacement of Andersson.
Last week, Carlos Ghosn, the head of the Renault-Nissan alliance said that a change of AvtoVAZ leaders would be normal at a certain moment, confirming expectations according to which Bo Andersson would be replaced soon.
Speculations about Andersson’s future have intensified especially in the Russian press when AvtoVAZ losses trebled from 25 billion roubles in 2014 to 73.85 billion roubles (930 million dollars) last year.
Renault decided to depreciate the value of its investment at AvtoVAZ by 225 million euros, to 91 million euros.
Under Andersson’s management, AvtoVAZ fired many employees, reduced costs and tried to reduce corruption and inefficiency.
Ghosn pointed out that Andersson’s possible replacement should not be seen as a reaction to financial performances of AvtoVAZ, affected by Russia’s economic problems.
Automobile sales in the Russian market went down by 36% last year on the background of recession of Russian economy, because of international sanctions and the drop of the price of oil.
Renault holds a participation of 50% with the holding company controlling AvtoVAZ, while the Japanese partner Nissan Motor Co owns a package of 17.13% and the Russian state corporation Rostec has a package of 32.87%. Together, Renault, Nissan and AvtoVAZ were responsible for about a third of the 1.6 million new cars sold in Russia last year. However, their combined sales dropped by 32% per year.