Russia data
Interesting to see some well presented Russia market data - sales by brand for January. There's nothing hugely surprising in the data table, but the manufacturer detail is well worth a look; plenty are present.
The Chinese brands aren't making much impact yet. The Chinese automakers have been forecast by Frost & Sullivan as accounting for 5% of the Russian car market by 2012. The idea is that the Chinese OEMs use the less regulatory stringent Russian automotive market as a start-up platform before targeting more sophisticated Western automotive markets later on.
Looking at that list of brands, they won't find it easy. The customers who want cheap and easily repairable will still be going in big numbers for Lada. And those who want a better 'foreign' brand (increasingly assembled in Russia) will likely be attracted to European and Japanese or Korean brands. Could be a tough positioning challenge for the Chinese if they attempt to be somewhere in the middle.
The data table - Russia light vehicle sales by brand for January - is embedded in this article. Just click on it and the full table opens up in a new box.
RUSSIA: Vehicle sales plummet in January
This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under Daves Blog. Original contribution by David Leggett's automotive industry blog - from just-auto.com. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.