Finance
Price of buying new car in Russia hits a record high, analytical agency says
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on November 13, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on November 13, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
New car prices in Russia reached a record 3.43 million roubles. The market is recovering, with Chinese brands leading and sales up 35% in October.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The average price of buying a new car in Russia hit a record high in October, rising to 3.43 million roubles ($42,189), Russian analytical agency Autostat said on Thursday, saying consumers were rushing to buy on fears of more price hikes.
The average purchase price was 3.5% higher than in October 2024, 60% higher than in 2021, and double the level five years ago, Autostat said in a statement.
"The main message in people’s minds is: buy now, everything will be more expensive tomorrow," Autostat cited its head, Sergei Tselikov, as saying.
Russia's car market plunged in 2022 after Western automakers exited following Moscow's decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. That opened the door for Chinese brands, which many Russians had previously been sceptical about, to dominate the market.
In 2024, after two years of gradual market recovery, Russians spent a record 4.9 trillion roubles ($60.27 billion) on cars with sales reaching 1.6 million cars.
Sales in 2025 have been slower, but there are signs of a recovery supported by the central bank's decision to cut its key interest rate and an expected rise in a scrappage fee, which stimulates consumers to spend more on vehicles.
Sales of new cars in October were at 165,702 units, up 35% on the previous month, and the Association of European Businesses (AEB) has raised its forecast for sales this year to 1.28 million units from 1.25 million and said the result could be even better.
The central bank expects inflation of between 6.5% and 7.0% in 2025.
($1 = 81.3000 roubles)
(Reporting by ReutersWriting by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power.
A central bank is a financial institution that manages a country's currency, money supply, and interest rates.
Consumer perception refers to the way consumers view and interpret a brand or product based on their experiences and beliefs.
A car scrappage fee is a charge applied when a vehicle is taken off the road, often used to encourage the purchase of new vehicles.
Interest rates are the cost of borrowing money or the return on savings, expressed as a percentage of the amount borrowed or saved.
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