Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Lots of Changes in Russia

Now that most of you know about the Top 100 best-selling cars in the world and the Top 318 best-selling models in Europe, I can go back to travelling where you want me to… Following your lead, we have already been to Chile, Georgia (the country, not the American state), Myanmar, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Now it seems like a few of you really enjoyed the trip we made to Russia exactly one year ago. Given a lot has changed since, I found it my duty to give you an update on the country of Vladimir Putin.

But wait, Russia is not your cup of vodka? нет проблем, because I have sales info for 159 additional countries for you to visit in my blog, all one by one. So don’t be shy and click away!

So I was saying a lot has changed in Russia…

First of all from a general point of view, the Russian market has grown significantly in one year: in March, it was up 12 percent year-on-year to 252,816 registrations, bringing the 2012 year-to-date total to 614,273 units after 3 months, up 19 percent on 2011.

Secondly the antediluvian Lada 2105/7 (born in 1979) and Samara (1984) are about to be discontinued! Yep that’s a massive event, and if the Lada 2105/7 was still leading the models ranking one year ago its fortune is logically very different today: it is down to #21 in March with sales down 78 percent year-on-year, while the Samara is down 36 percent to #9.

But if these two icons are on the way out, who’s coming in? One word: Granta. The new Lada Granta kick-started its production in December 2011 and as of March it is already up to 4th place in the models ranking with 9,291 sales and 3.7 percent share. The Granta is a big event for local brand Lada as it has the daunting task of keeping the brand afloat in an increasingly competitive market.

For more info about the Granta launch in Russia you can click here.

The third big change the Russian market has undertaken in the last year is the responsibility of Hyundai. The Korean manufacturer launched the locally manufactured ‘Solaris’ in early 2011. The Solaris is a new generation Accent fine-tuned to suit Russian road conditions and it has been an instant hit with Russian consumers, reaching levels never seen before for a model by a foreign brand in Russia.

In February the Solaris was up to #2, quite possibly the highest position ever reached by a ‘foreign’ model in Russia even though it is built locally. It keeps this spot in March with 10,492 sales and 4.2 percent share.

Meanwhile, the Lada Kalina finished 2011 in pole position for the very first time and is in the lead after 3 months in 2012 with 27,820 sales and 4.5 percent share, in spite of a 11 percent drop year-on-year.