New-car sales in Russia fell 4 percent last month after a drop in December that ended a three-month bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, data from the Association of European Businesses (AEB) showed.
A total of 95,213 vehicles were sold in January.
"After three months of top growth, the market has been slightly decreasing [since December 2020]. We still expect that with stronger February and March sales, the first quarter will be on the level of the previous year," Thomas Staertzel, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, said in a release.
The AEB has said it does not expect significant changes in demand for the coming year and has forecast market growth of 2.1 percent to 1.63 million.
Despite the fall, Russia fared better than Europe's top five markets where overall demand plummeted 26 percent last month.
Germany, Europe's biggest market, fell 31 percent, while the UK dropped 40 percent. Registrations in Italy were down 14 percent and demand in Spain plunged 52 percent. French registrations were down 6 percent.
Winners & losers
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Russia's top-five-selling brands had mixed results in January, with Lada maker and market leader AvtoVAZ reporting flat sales. The No. 2-ranked brand, Kia, rose 1 percent, while third-ranked Hyundai fell 4 percent.
Renault, at No. 4 overall, increased 3 percent while fifth-ranked Skoda rose 2 percent ahead of the Volkswagen brand, which decreased 10 percent to finish the month at No. 6.
Notable winners among the bigger sellers included Lexus (+29 percent), Audi (+23 percent) and Mazda (+13 percent).
Brands that lost ground in January included Mitsubishi, (-39 percent), Nissan (-34 percent), Toyota (-17 percent) and Mazda (-14 percent).
