OEMs Suspend Vehicle Sales In Russia Amid Volatile Currency Situation

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

With the Russian ruble experiencing a near collapse in value, multiple OEMs have decided to suspend sales of its vehicles in Russia.

According to a statement sent to Just-Auto, GM’s Russian arm said

“In view of the volatility of [the] rouble exchange rate and with the aim to manage its business risk, GM Russia has decided to temporarily suspend wholesaling of vehicles to its dealers in Russia as of 16 December, 2014,” said a GM Europe statement emailed to just-auto. At the same time we confirm all Cadillac, Opel and Chevrolet vehicles already purchased by customers will be delivered on the agreed price. We are monitoring the situation.”

Bloomberg is reporting that Audi and Jaguar Land Rover have also suspended sales amid uncertainty in foreign exchange markets. Toyota, Volkswagen are set to adjust their prices in the near future to reflect the new exchange rates.

Russian auto sales have spiked in recent weeks as consumers sought to buy up hard assets to protect against a falling ruble. But the erosion on value of the Russian currency have left several OEMs exposed to currency risks. According to Bloomberg’s report, BMW could stand to lose as much as $135 million dollars due to the recent drop in the ruble.

Derek Kreindler
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  • Romismak Romismak on Dec 19, 2014

    This thread is about cars, but 90% of you guys talking about Russia-Putin-politics - amazing.... and sadly 70-80% at least have no idea what are they talking about, because just know ,,100% accurate,, facts from their mainstream media - no matter which country. I for once will talk to subject here - i think this rouble problem is just temporary, already today and yesterday RUB became stronger vs USD and EUR. I think it can help Lada right now, they probably don´t import much components from abroad so they can produce from mostly russian parts and pay in RUB, but we will see when AEBRUS.RU will release new stats for December at 10th or so January. About whole Putin phobia in western countries - it´s called Cognitive dissonance - it means people can´t accept or are discomforted when they need to accept new information which is opposite of their beliefs or what they think is right People here saying there is huge russian PR and progaganda, yes there is, but those same people don´t even realize there is the same anti-russian propaganda in western - so called worldwide - international media i can see this in my country in Slovakia we are EU and NATO country so anti-russian propaganda it´s so sad to see all those articles and ,,facts,, bashing Russia left-right every day at least people here have some knowledge about circumstances and situation, but poor people in the US, they have no alternative media, just anti-russian basically every channel there is is anti-russian, it´s pathetic in every article there is is mentinoed Putin is former KGB spy, i wonder if such thing was always mentioned with Bush senior, when he was US presidenet that he was former CIA operative- director... probably not mentioned each time for obvious reasons,,

    • See 1 previous
    • Romismak Romismak on Dec 20, 2014

      @ect You are right there is difference - 1st one is official 2nd one is unofficial - it´s even worse , people like you believing there is free press or choice and so on - yes there is maybe some blogs and regional newspaper but the main big ones - TV channels, biggest newspapers by circulations, biggest websites - they all are anti-russian on purpose, not because ,,free press,, can say what they can, yes sure they can say what they want but not if it´s about Russia, it´s almsot impossible to get something pro-Russian on main US media and if you think it´s because there is just nothing good about Russia than there is no point to argue with you. just example - MH17 was down what 1-2hours and already Poroshenko was on CNN saying how bad Russia was responsible - i don´t know who is responsible which side, but fact is it was used as tool immediately without any proof and informations - that´s just example of what i mean, you think there is free media, i say no there are few big groups - media groups, people behind who own them and they cooperate in this anti-russian course there is no choice if you live in the US just to hear every day how bad Putin and Russia is if you don´t call that propaganda i don´t get you

  • Romismak Romismak on Dec 19, 2014

    This thread is about cars, but 90% of you guys talking about Russia-Putin-politics - amazing.... and sadly 70-80% at least have no idea what are they talking about, because just know ,,100% accurate,, facts from their mainstream media - no matter which country. I for once will talk to subject here - i think this rouble problem is just temporary, already today and yesterday RUB became stronger vs USD and EUR. I think it can help Lada right now, they probably don´t import much components from abroad so they can produce from mostly russian parts and pay in RUB, but we will see when AEBRUS.RU will release new stats for December at 10th or so January. About whole Putin phobia in western countries - it´s called Cognitive dissonance - it means people can´t accept or are discomforted when they need to accept new information which is opposite of their beliefs or what they think is right People here saying there is huge russian PR and progaganda, yes there is, but those same people don´t even realize there is the same anti-russian propaganda in western - so called worldwide - international media i can see this in my country in Slovakia we are EU and NATO country so anti-russian propaganda it´s so sad to see all those articles and ,,facts,, bashing Russia left-right every day at least people here have some knowledge about circumstances and situation, but poor people in the US, they have no alternative media, just anti-russian basically every channel there is is anti-russian, it´s pathetic in every article there is is mentinoed Putin is former KGB spy, i wonder if such thing was always mentioned with Bush senior, when he was US presidenet that he was former CIA operative- director... probably not mentioned each time for obvious reasons,

  • TomLU86 TomLU86 on Dec 19, 2014

    VVK's Southwest/Mexico analogy is disingenuous. The vast majority of the people of the Crimea wanted to be in Russia. It was a Russian area that an illegitimate (ie Communist Kruschev) "gave" to the "Soviet Republic of Ukraine". Putin was right to take it. Russians are overwhelmingly Orthodox. Ukranians are split between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox (though who know how many observant ones of either...). Granting VVK's point that the Ukraine is the cradle of Russia, if the are "more Russian than Russians", they should not have seceded during the break-up. They did. If the Russian speaking minority (and my understanding is that Russian and Ukranian are very close languages) wishes to join the mother country, why not? The Ukraine owes Russia a lot of money. The reality is, the same big financiers who brought us the 2008-9 Financial Crisis/Recession/Depression see a chance to add even more lucrative debt to a hurting country. They largely dictate US financial policy (did Obama touch Wall St? No. Would Romney? No. Hillary? No.), and have mobilized the US Govt to further their aims. Easy money has made the 0.1% incredibly wealthy, while making lives for most Americans more difficult, and making lives for Southern Europeans, who like heroin addicts that took near-free easy dope (debt), almost unbearable. Putin is right not to go along, and not to be pushed around. He can make life very difficult for us--we need the Russians help to resupply our troops in Afghanistan, since we can't go thru Iran or Paki. Maybe Putin will do as a favor and cut us off, so we can get out and save lives and money. Nixon managed to pry China and the USSR apart, to the USSR's detriment. The US govt will push them together, to our detriment. Russian energy for Chinese finished goods. It's not smart for the US--at least not for the 99.9% who won't make tens of billions of exotic financian instruments that they don't understand. It may be good for defense workers and defense companies. Of course, that won't help with our crumbling roads or whopping entitlement payments...

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    • Ect Ect on Dec 19, 2014

      More nonsense. There is no evidence that the people of Crimea wanted to join Russiam], and significant evidence that they didn't. In the end, it didn't matter, because Russia invaded (in direct violation of their treaty pledge to respect Ukraine's sovereignty)and then held a bogus referendum to try to justify their action. "the same big financiers who brought us the 2008-9 Financial Crisis/Recession/Depression see a chance to add even more lucrative debt to a hurting country". Please, that's simply stupid.

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Dec 19, 2014

    The Imperial Russian/Soviet Black Seas Fleet has been based out of Crimea since 1783. This would not have happened in Crimea was not considered Russian territory by St. Petersburg/Moscow. Finland was part of the Swedish Empire until 1809 and both it and the modern state of Poland did not exist until 1918 (Poland having existed twice before in the previous thousand years and being partitioned) Seward's Folly took place in 1867, thus the establishment of the BSF predates all three things you cited and predates Alaska and the Finnish Duchy of the Russian Empire in 1810 (one could make arguments about the previous incarnations of Poland). "The Black Sea Fleet is considered to have been founded by Prince Potemkin on May 13, 1783, together with its principal base, the city of Sevastopol." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_Fleet "The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of Russian America by the United States from the Russian Empire in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Purchase "From the late 12th century until 1809, Finland was part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. It then became the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous duchy within the Russian Empire, until the Russian Revolution which prompted the Finnish Declaration of Independence." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland

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    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Mar 25, 2015

      @ect The West also agreed to respect the Russian sphere of influence after 1991, and instead inducted nearly all of the old Warsaw pact states into NATO alone with the Baltics in less than twenty five years. Both sides here have broken promises. Another interesting sidebar is the cancelled US Dept of the Navy contract from 2013 issued to renovate a school in Sevastopol. What this was really about I can't tell you, but what the US Navy was doing in Sevastopol, where it has no presence, and just happens to be the HQ of BSF as well as being the only Soviet warm water port, is certainly intriguing. Seems like the Navy was beginning to setting up shop in Moscow's backyard. https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=2bb691b61c59be3a68180bd8c614a0cb&tab=core&_cview=1

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