New-car sales in Russia plunged the most on record last month as sanctions undermined domestic production and most foreign automakers suspended operations in the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sales fell 79 percent to 32,706 vehicles in April compared to a year earlier, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said in a statement on Wednesday.
That is the biggest drop since the European trade group began reporting the data in 2006. The April figures did not include sales from BMW, Mercedes-Benz or General Motors, which report sales numbers quarterly.
Sales of Lada cars built by Russia's largest automaker, AvtoVAZ, fell 78 percent, AEB data showed.