Sales of electric vehicles in Russia fell by 63%
Sales of new electric vehicles in January and February turned out to be much worse than the whole car market as a whole. The effect of last year’s high base, utilsbor indexing, high credit rates and generally reducing interest in electric cars were added to the “exhausted demand”. Experts and analysts do not see the prerequisites for improving the situation, predicting the drop in the market by 30–40% at the end of the year.
Sales of new cars in February were reduced by three times a year by the year, to 617 pieces, calculated in Avtostat. The negative trend lasts the second month in a row and significantly exceeds the decrease in the market of cars as a whole. According to the agency, in January – February, sales of electric vehicles fell by 63%, up to 1.27 thousand pieces, while the entire car market – by 9.3%, to 167.11 thousand pieces. If in January -February last year the share of net electric vehicles was 1.8% of total sales, now – 0.8%, says the CEO of Avtostat Sergey Tselikov.
The expert explains that he influenced the dynamics of sales of electric vehicles as “exhausted demand”, which affects the car market as a whole (See “Kommersant” from March 6), and the effect of a high base.
Last year, on the eve of changes in the rules of import import, importers increased deliveries, the expert explains. In addition, Mr. Tselikov believes, electric cars do not take root in the Russian market as a mass phenomenon: such vehicles are more likely a means of transportation in the city than in long distances.
The reduction in demand was also influenced by the indexation of Utilsbor bets in January: electric cars became much higher, says the head of the car sales department, Avtodom Elektrodom, Israel Mgtyan. “On average, they became almost 670 thousand rubles more expensive than 670 thousand rubles,” says Yevgeny Zhitnykhin, commercial director of the Fresh automobile market. In addition, the top manager resembles, January and February traditionally do not distinguish high demand for any vehicles, especially electric cars that in the cold season lose the battery resource faster.
Director of the Rolf New Cars Department, Nikolai Ivanov, believes that a high key rate and the expectation of the return of premium models of the bygone brands continues to negatively influence the electric vehicle market. In addition, many popular brands from last year cannot be imported by legal entities due to the lack of an official representative office, says Avilon Electro Director Sergei Mlyukh.
The leader in sales of electric vehicles in the Russian market in January -February – Chinese Zeekr (Geely Submarine) with a share of 36.6% of the market, supplied to the country for parallel imports. According to Avtostat, sales of brand machines decreased by 72% year by the year, to 464 pieces. In second place is the Evolution brand, the sale of which was reduced by 59%, to 114 electric vehicles (market share 9%). TOP-3 closes AVATR (CHANGAN Submarine, share of 8.6%), which increased sales by 6%, to 109 pieces. Following the Moskvich and Ora (part of the Great Wall concern): the implementation of the first decreased by 74%, to 97 pieces (share of 7.6%), the second – increased by 38%, to 81 pieces (share of 6.4%). “From the statistics it is clear that dealers sell stocks of past years – 98% of sales fall on cars 2023–2024,” Mr. Tselikov said.
Sales of hybrid cars, according to Sergei Tselikov, exceed the indicators in purely electric ones by about three times. The expert does not give absolute numbers.
“In the Russian market, hybrids, in essence,“ lie down ”better and are not tied to daily charges. Consistent hybrids – up to a thousand kilometers of mileage, you can safely travel around the country. This is a full -fledged replacement of gasoline cars, while electric cars are not, ”the expert argues. Mr. Meluh confirms that consumer interest is slightly shifted towards hybrids. Their share in sales increases mainly due to the growth of the share of the premium segment, the top manager explains.
Analysts and dealers look at the electric vehicles of the current year with pessimistically. Sergei Tselikov believes that there are no prerequisites for the growth of sales in the segment now and, according to the results of 2025, it is likely to decrease by more than 30%, to 10-12 thousand pieces. Mr. Mgdesyan shall have a similar opinion. Nikolai Ivanov believes that the market will pass by at least 30–40%. “The electrification trend has changed significantly. This became obvious a year ago, when Toyota publicly stated that she would continue to produce cars with internal combustion engines. Such trends are observed almost everywhere, with the exception of China, ”adds a top manager.
