Koreans cut the prices on Hyundai Solaris down against the background of sales record of Lada Vesta

Soared Lada Vesta and russified Nissan Qashqai

In 2016, sales of the vast majority of popular in Russia cars has declined in comparison with 2015. The exception to this list, consisting of 25 cars, are only nine models. First and foremost, it is not produced in 2015 Hyundai Creta and Lada Xray. One of the leaders in 2016 — Lada Vesta — a year earlier only started to be sold, due to that its growth was fantastic 1800%. The rest gained popularity cars have more stable results, however, and here there are also significant ups. For example, the crossover Nissan Qashqai was sold by 78% more than in 2015, and Toyota RAV4 — by 13% more. The growth of other cars is less significant: Skoda Rapid — 6%, Volkswagen Polo — 5%, Skoda Octavia — 2%, Renault Duster — a slight 0.2%.

All other cars have lost popularity, and they were sold less than in 2015. The biggest drop belongs to two Russian cars: Lada Kalina (almost twofold — by 42%) and Lada Priora (by 38%). The decline in their popularity probably can be attributed to the introduction of two new models Vesta and XRay, which immediately gained widespread popularity. Moreover, the total sales rate of Lada models of the top-25 decreased slightly — by 1.8%.

The biggest drop belongs to two Russian cars: Lada Kalina (almost twofold — by 42%) and Lada Priora (by 38%). Photo: Roman Khasaev

The impact of the emergence of new models of Lada on the loss of popularity of the older models is confirmed by the fact that the decline in sales is seen in models of other manufacturers in the same segment with Vesta and, to a lesser extent, with XRay. So, the third car by annual decline in sales is Renault Logan, its index decreased by 28%. Other budget cars of the same class with new Lada models had almost the same decrease, in particular, Lada Granta (by 27%), Lada Largus (by 25%), Lada 4x4 (by 23%), Hyundai Solaris and KIA Ceed (by 22%).

Top 5: two Ladas and Russian foreign cars

By the results of 2016, the best-selling car in Russia was nominal ''Korean'' Hyundai Solaris. This model has replaced the former leader Lada Granta. They both, however, have reduced their performance, but Granta dipped more — by 27% against 22% by Solaris. In 2016, Hyundai sold to Russia 90,400 cars of Solaris, produced near St. Petersburg, compared to 116,000 in 2015. Lada Granta was sold in the amount of 87,700 cars, in the previous year this figure was 120,000.

Interestingly, Lada has found it possible to raise prices on all its models: in particular, Granta in 2017 has become more expensive than the model in 2016 from 384 to 390 thousand rubles (by 2%), and Hyundai, apparently, on the background of the emergence of the competitor in the face of Lada Vesta, has reduced the cost of Solaris. At the end of 2016, the model cost 624,000 rubles, and in March it fell by 25,000 (or 4%) to 600,000 rubles. Hyundai has not reduced prices on other models.

The third place by sales index in 2016, as well as a year earlier, belongs to the budget sedan Kia Rio. Like in the case with most models, its sales declined, but not as much as in the case of Granta and Solaris — only by 10%. In 2016, 87,700 vehicles of this brand were sold, a year ago it was sold 97,000. This year, Kia Rio has lacked only 64 units sold to match the index with the Lada Granta, and in 2015 the difference was more than 20,000 cars. At the same time, as well as other Kia models (except Soul), Rio rose in price compared to the end of 2016 by 11,000, or 2%. Now the model costs 651,000 rubles. Interestingly, Rio is now produced at the same Hyundai plant near St. Petersburg, where Hyundai produce Solaris.

This model in July 2015 was brought to Kazan by the head of AvtoVAZ Bo Andersson, together with another new model — Lada XRay. Photo: Roman Khasaev

The new model of AvtoVAZ — Lada Vesta – has taken the fourth place in the top 25. It advanced already in 2015, but that time the result was modest — 2,785 cars because they started to sell it not at the beginning of the year. In 2016, it got on the list of best-selling cars, and not only ahead of some foreign brands (but assembled in Russia) — for example, Volkswagen Polo and Renault Logan, but also ahead of all other models of Lada, except Lada Granta. Now Vesta costs 546,000 rubles (by 17,000 or 3% more than at the end of 2016). This is the most expensive model after the crossover XRay, its price is slightly less than of Volkswagen Polo, Hyundai Solaris, Skoda Rapid (the difference is 54,000 rubles), and higher than of Renault Logan and Sandero. This model in July 2015 was brought to Kazan by the head of AvtoVAZ Bo Andersson, together with another new model — Lada XRay. In February 2017, it was reported that Lada Vesta would start to be sold in Germany at a price of 12,500 euros.

Volkswagen Polo, advanced with new sedan AvtoVAZ, last year's winner of the fourth place, rounds out the top five. Despite a nominal fall in the rankings, in fact, Kaluga ''German'' showed a better result than obscenely similar Hyundai Solaris and Kia Rio: its sales increased by 5%, or nearly 2,500 cars — from 45,4 to 47,7 thousand cars.

How Renault-Nissan and AvtoVAZ have filled the country with clones

The sixth place was taken by another car which is considered to be ''foreign car'', but actually assembled in Russia. It is crossover Renault Duster produced along with other models of the Renault-Nissan Alliance on the site of the former plant AZLK in Moscow.

Duster is the most popular representative of the platform B0, including Renault Logan and Sandero, Lada Largus (Logan and Largus are known in European countries as the car with two body types — Dacia Logan). Interestingly, on the same base they also produce Nissan Almera and Lada XRay, while Nissan is manufactured at AvtoVAZ.

The sixth place was taken by another car which is considered to be ''foreign car'', but actually assembled in Russia. It is crossover Renault Duster. Photo: auto.ru

The mixture of three brands — Lada, Nissan and Renault — is due to the fact that the alliance of French Renault and Japanese Nissan owns a controlling stake of AvtoVAZ. Accordingly, the manufacturers use the same design, brands and factories. The result is a dozen different cars sold under different brands, but, in fact, they are variations on the same platform. The current Nissan Almera in the body G11, for example, is known only in Russia. At the same time, in Thailand it is produced another car under the same brand, but visually different, in the body N17. The history of authentic Japanese Nissan Almera ended in 2006.

As for the current series, on the base of which Almera is produced in Russia, as it has been already mentioned, the most popular model is Renault Duster. In the previous year, it took the fifth place, and in 2016 ''slipped'' to the sixth ''thanks to'' Lada Vesta. However, the number of actually sold Dusters, unlike many other models, not only did not decreased but even slightly increased — 44,000 units were sold.

Another car on the same base — Renault Logan — took the ninth place in 2016, although in 2015 ranked the sixth. It was sold 29,600 cars — almost a third less than a year before. The indices of other two models on this base also dropped, and they are followed by each other by the number of cars sold. The tenth place belongs to Lada Largus, reducing the number of cars sold by quarter — from 39 to 29 thousand, and the 11th — Renault Sandero, which sales decreased by 6% — from 30 to 29 thousand. Besides, on that base it is also produced a newcomer of the top 25 in 2016 — Lada XRay, which immediately after the release gained popularity in Tatarstan. This model took 18th place with 20,000 units sold, it lacked only a thousand to reach the indicator of Lada Kalina, but in 2017 it has already entered the top 10.

All models produced on the basis B0 at the beginning of the year has risen by almost the same figure — by 2%. An exception has been Lada Largus, its value increased only by 1%, from 525 to 530 thousand rubles. The most affordable of the line model, Renault Logan, has risen in price compared to the end of 2016 by 10,000 rubles — from 469 to 479 thousand rubles. The second by price Sandero is more expensive than Logan by 10,000 rubles, it rose by 10,000 as well as Renault Duster. The cost of the latter, however, is higher — 639,000 rubles. A little cheaper is Nissan Almera — 626,000, but starting from the beginning of 2016, it has risen by as much as 15,000 rubles. Even cheaper — VAZ crossover on the same base, Lada XRay. In the first three months of 2016, it went up in price by 10,900 rubles — to 600,000 rubles.

Now the crossover costs 1,493 million rubles, and this is the most expensive car in the top 10. Photo: autonavigator.ru

Nissan Almera left in order to return

In addition to these models, the top 10 best-selling cars in Russia includes two more models. They are Toyota RAV4 and Chevrolet Niva.

Rav 4 of the Japanese manufacturer is also produced in Russia starting from 2016 at the plant in St. Petersburg. It is unknown how it is connected, but in the same year, the model showed a significant increase: the cars of this model were sold by 13% more than in 2015 — 30,600 pieces. This allowed Toyota RAV4 to climb from 14th to the 7th place in the ranking. However, in early 2016, like all Toyota models, RAV4 increased its price — by 2%, or 34,000 rubles. Now the crossover costs 1,493 million rubles, and it is the most expensive car in the top 10.

Another model in the top 10 is Chevrolet Niva, made by AvtoVAZ. Unlike Toyota, Chevrolet Niva cars in the past year were sold by 5% less than in 2015, only 30,000 cars. However, apparently, on the background of the decline of other models, AvtoVAZ's Chevrolet even managed to improve its place in the top — model now occupies the 8th place in Russia by sales. At the moment, the crossover can be bought for 586,000 rubles. At the end of 2016, this model were sold for 536.000 rubles – the growth was 9%.

Among other successful models it is possible to highlight two newcomers of the rating that began to be sold only in 2016 — Hyundai Creta and already mentioned Lada XRay. As for Hyundai Creta, the crossover from the first year of sales occupied the 15th place. It was sold almost 22,000 cars — this figure is higher than of Skoda Octavia, for a long time sold on the market. The cost of Hyundai Grand is from 790,000rubles.

In addition, the top 25 has included Lada Vesta and Nissan Qashqai. The latter has taken 21st place. This happened due to the increase in sales by almost twofold, from 10.5 million units in 2015 to 18,700 cars in 2016. From the end of 2015, Qashqai is assembled at the plant in St. Petersburg (they also collect other ''big'' models Nissan — X-Trail, Pathfinder and Murano), sales growth can be attributed to this. Qashqai for the first three months of 2016 has risen in price by 2% — from 1.13 to 1.15 million rubles.

Obviously, the dropping out of the model in 2016 can be linked with the launch of the new generation of the car, and soon this line will be back in the ranking. Photo: bright-cars.com

There are four models in the list of dropped out of the top 25 cars. They are Nissan Almera, Datsun On-DO, Hyundai ix35, Mitsubishi Outlander. If the dropping out of Hyundai ix35 and Mitsubishi Outlander can be considered as expected against the backdrop of recent new models (in 2015, they occupied the 23rd place with 19,000 of cars and the 25th place with 16,000 cars accordingly), which cannot be said about the other two models. Nissan Almera in 2015 took the 15th place with 26,000 cars. In comparison to 2014, the result fell almost two times. Obviously, the dropping out of the model in 2016 can be linked with the launch of the new generation of the car, and soon this line will be back in the ranking.

What happened to the Datsun on-DO (the joint project of AvtoVAZ and Nissan, manufactured at Lada capacities using the engines of Granta and the classic Japanese car brand) is not very clear. In 2015, it seemingly was gaining momentum, almost 24,000 cars were sold (it is two times more than in 2014), and in 2016 it already was not in the top 25. Accordingly, in 2016, it was sold less than 15,000 cars (the result of Kia Ceed from the last line of the rating).

2017: Vesta catches up with Granta, Volkswagen brings Tiguan in the top-25

If you look at the sales statistics in the first two months of 2017, one can conclude that, it seems, this year will also bring significant changes in the car market.

The first place by a considerable margin (30%) is taken by Kia Rio, only the third in 2016. The second and third places have been shared between two models of Lada — Granta and Vesta, the latter increased the rate twofold, and Granta continues to lose customers. The performance of these two cars is almost the same.

The fourth place belongs to the Creta crossover from Hyundai — obviously one of the main models of the season. Almost 7,000 of these were sold in two months, it is only one-third less than of Granta. Creta even pressed two popular budget models — Volkswagen Polo and the other model of Hyundai — Solaris (it took the first place in 2016).

The growing popularity of this model, as well as of Nissan Qashqai and Toyota RAV4 in 2016, is associated with the early production of the model in Russia, at the plant in Kaluga. Photo: vw-touareg.ru

It is worth noting the emergence of two new models in the list, as well as the potential dropping out of the epoch-making Lada Kalina from the ranking — it already takes the 25th place. Among the new models, there are crossover Renault Kaptur at 880,000 rubles, which unexpectedly by the beginning of March became more popular than Logan and Sandero. The model was created on the base of the same Renault Duster (unlike another model of crossover from Renault, with almost the same name — Captur, created on the basis of Clio and not available in Russia).

Another new model in the 2017 rating — Volkswagen Tiguan, which showed sales growth 2.5 times in comparison to January-February 2016. It is noteworthy that the growing popularity of this model, as well as of Nissan Qashqai and Toyota RAV4 in 2016, is associated with the early production of the model in Russia, at the plant in Kaluga. The cost of the car is from 1.46 million rubles.