Demand for new cars in Ukraine shrinks in Nov 2024

MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - Primary registrations of new cars in Ukraine declined by 3% to slightly over 5,200 in November 2024 year-on-year, Ukrainian media outlets said, citing the Ukrautoprom association's statement on social media.

Ukraine's demand for new cars dropped 10% in November 2024 compared to October, when more than 5,800 new cars were registered.

The November 2024 leader of the new passenger car market was again Toyota with 868 vehicles registered, 2% more than in November 2023 and 28% more than in October 2024.

Renault was replaced by Toyota and returned to its second place with 533 registered vehicles in November 2024, which is 39% more than in November 2023 but down 32% month-on-month.

Skoda was in third place with 514 registered cars in November 2024, a 27% increase month-on-month but a 1% decline year-on-year. Skoda ranked second in November 2023. In November 2024, it was followed by Volkswagen with 447 cars (+23% and -6%), and BMW with 305 cars (-23% and +21%).

The Renault Duster compact SUV was the Ukrainian market's bestseller of the month once again with 511 cars sold versus 749 cars sold in October.

The Auto-Consulting information and analytical group, in turn, said on its website that the November 2024 results were somewhat disappointing for Ukraine's auto market, where car sales dropped 13.4% year-on-year and 11% month-on-month to 5,300.

"There are several reasons for that. The auto market managed to balance itself in October following rumors of the introduction of a military levy and even started to grow gradually. In November, this trend continued at first, but was then affected both by energy problems and the new rules for the trade in used vehicles, which reduced the flow of new buyers to the market," Auto-Consulting analysts said.

Auto-Consulting's top five car brands in November 2024 is the same as Ukrautoprom's, but, according to the information and analytical group, the November 2024 intrigue was that Audi dealerships started to actively squeeze BMW, which ranked fifth. Audi climbed to sixth place from 12th in October, boosting its sales by 24.8% in November month-on-month, whereas BMW sales dropped by 23%.

Another surprise development in November 2024 was the rapid increase in sales of Chinese BYD cars, which ranked seventh in November, outperforming Hyundai, Nissan and some other known brands.

"However, this is almost the only good news for Chinese cars' traders, because the next Chinese brand in the ranking, Zeerk, is currently at the bottom of the Ukrainian auto market's top 20," it said.

According to Ukrautoprom data, 64,000 new cars were registered in Ukraine in January-November 2024, which is 17% more than in the same period of 2023. Auto-Consulting, for its part, estimates this growth at 11% to 65,500 cars.

As reported, since the beginning of the year, about 5,700-5,800 new passenger cars were registered every month in Ukraine, however, such registration numbers drastically increased in July-August amid rumors of a new military duty of 15% for consumers, and, in particular, the growth to 8,100 registrations was recorded in August.

However, in September, when it was already known that this tax was scrapped, the market predictably returned to 5,700 passenger car registrations.

As reported, citing data from the Ukrautoprom association, initial registrations of new passenger cars in Ukraine in 2023 rose 60.6% year-on-year to almost 61,000 cars. Auto-Consulting put this growth at 62.4% to over 65,000.