Daewoo Matiz car.
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Mitsubishi Sets Sales Record in Russia, Daewoo Takes the Lead
Russia’s agency of Mitsubishi Motors has announced it sold 11,924 cars in the first quarter of 2005, 2.6 fold up on year. Rolf Holding, exclusive importer of Mitsubishi Motors to Russia, was the first among Mitsubishi distributors in Europe by the Q1-2005 result, Lenta.ru announced Thursday. Still, it is not Mitsubishi but Daewoo with 15,000 cars sold in the first quarter, that is the Russian leader, Vedomosti said.
Mitsubishi Lancer is one of the market leaders in Russia with 7,106 cars sold in the first quarter, 2.6 fold up compared with a year earlier. Lancer is followed by Mitsubishi Colt hatchbacks (1,154 cars) and Mitsubishi Outlander crossovers (908 cars, 81.6 percent). Sales of compact off-highway Mitsubishi Pajero Pinin reached 820 cars, three fold up on year; sales of off-highway Mitsubishi Pajero Sport stood at 542 cars, 2.1 fold up on year.
Mitsubishi Pajero (482 cars sold), Mitsubishi L200 (226), Mitsubishi Grandis (159) and exclusive Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII (29) bring up the rear.
2005 target is to sell around 50,000 Mitsubishis in Russia.
Still, it is not Mitsubishi that is the No. 1 in Russia, Vedomosti reported. Korean Daewoo has taken the lead with the sales of Uzbek-assembled Nexia and Matiz well ahead of the most advanced Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Toyota. Q1-2005 Daewoo sales reached 15,000, 2.5 fold up on year.
The experts say Daewoo forces back not the foreign cars but Russia’s VAZ on the market, as the prices for VAZ-2110 and Nexia are almost equal. “Notwithstanding that Nexias are generally known as outdated cars, they are reliable enough,” said Valery Tarakanov, spokesman of Rolf car trading group.
Daewoo’s Nexia costs around $8,300, the price for VAZ-2110 is around $8.250, say representatives of Moscow Avtomir. Last fall, Uz-Daewoo arrived at the right market policy. Nexia’s prices were trimmed by $300 past October, while the prices for VAZ cars increased by 10,000 rubles, once new engines were installed. On January 1, 2005, VAZ raised prices once again, this time by 2 percent, so the market didn’t respond to another $200 added to Nexia on April 1.
Daewoo is a serious competitor of VAZ-2110, Alexander Gromkov, deputy director at AvtoVAZ told Vedomosti. VAZ production went down 4.7 percent on year in the first quarter of 2005 (165,688 cars were made overall), Gromkov specified attributing such slowdown to the long winter.
The experts forecast production of cars of Russia’s make will decline by 2010, due to their inability to oppose foreign cars. Actually, makers of Russia’s cars faced sales decline already in the first three months of this year, ASM-Holding pointed out.
For instance, Russia’s traditional leader AvtoVAZ posted 9-percent reduction in the Q1 sales vs. a year earlier. IzAvto lost 32.2 percent, UAZ - 37.4 percent, Volga - 54.4 percent. Simultaneously, the cars of foreign make but Russia’s assembly stepped up their sales. Avtotor widened 66.6 percent, Ford Motor Company (the Leningrad Region) climbed 17 percent, GM-AvtoVAZ - 26.6 percent.
www.kommersant.com
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