The Russian car market is set to fall by around 20%, according to a Russian car manufacturer.
AvtoVAZ, which is controlled by Renault-Nissan and includes the Lada marque in its stable, saw sales fall by 15% in the first four months to 128,633 units compared to the same period in 2013.
AvtoVAZ Image: Sergey feo |
The Association of European Businesses (AEB) has said that the overall Russian market dropped 4% to 829k vehicles over the same period in 2014.
According to AvtoVAZ CEO Bo Andersson, the shrinking market can't be attributed to US and EU sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Although the company saw sales decrease by 7% in 2013 with the company losing 7.7bn rubles ($225m) compared to a net income of 29bn ($843m) rubles in 2012, Andersson is confident that AvtoVAZ's slide will be slower than the industry overall - helping to increase its domestic market share.