Car Dealers Have Started To Close Down By The Hundreds In Russia

Huge collapse in car sales.

Since the beginning of 2025, about 200 car dealerships in Russia have stopped working - this is about 5% of the total number of dealers, of which there are about 4000 in the country. This Autonews was reported by the president of the Association "Russian Automobile Dealers" (ROAD) Alexei Podshchekoldin. Massive closure is taking place against the background of a sharp decline in demand: at the end of the first half of the year, sales of new cars in Russia collapsed by more than a quarter.

According to Podshchekoldin, about 30% of car dealership companies in the country are now in an extremely difficult financial situation and are close to stopping their activities. He noted that the current structure of the Russian automobile market does not allow either car manufacturers or dealers to make a sustainable profit.

Despite the overall decline in sales, the number of car brands on the Russian market has doubled in more than three years since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine: if at the beginning of 2022 there were 60 of them, by June 2025 - already 124. At the same time, according to the expert, "the overwhelming majority of new brands are Chinese".

But the growth in the number of brands does not mean an increase in sales. One automobile brand in Russia on average accounts for about 12,900 cars sold per year - it is 28 times less than in the USA, where one brand sells about 355,500 cars. At the same time, the number of brands in Russia is almost three times higher than in the US (124 vs. 45), and there are 4,000 car dealers in Russia, compared to 16,700 in the US. In terms of sales per dealership center in Russia, there are only about 400 sales per year, while in the U.S. there are 960, which is 2.4 times more. Such indicators make a significant part of the Russian dealership business unprofitable, emphasizes Autonews.

According to the deputy head of the analytical center "Autostat" Dmitri Eregin, for the first six months of 2025 in Russia was sold 530.4 thousand new passenger cars. Including commercial vehicles (trucks and buses), the total market volume amounted to 601.8 thousand units. This is 28% less than in the same period last year, with a 26% drop in the passenger car segment.

At Avtostat analysts name high car prices, tightening of the Central Bank's policy in the field of car loans, high rates on loans and deposits among the key factors of demand reduction.

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