"AVTOVAZ President evaluates factors leading to decreased sales of Lada vehicles"
Lada's Slump in 2025: Maxim Sokolov Spills the Beans
At this year's Digital Industry of Industrial Russia (CIPR-2025) conference, Maxim Sokolov, president of AvtoVAZ, spilled the beans about the significant drop in Lada car sales. RIA Novosti reports the exclusive.
"Sales of Lada vehicles over the past five months reached a whopping 131,204 units, but that's nearly a quarter—a 26.3%—less compared to 2024", Sokolov highlighted. "Key factors contributing to this slump include cheap Chinese cars, sky-high interest rates, and a harsh credit crunch."
Sokolov also hinted that Lada sales might take a dive in June as well, estimating around 30,000 units.
"We anticipate that the current market situation may cause sales in June to drop by approximately a quarter (year-over-year decrease). At the moment, we're seeing the market headed that way—the first quarter of May to early June is projecting around a 30,000 car drop in sales for June. That's slightly more than May but less than last year", Sokolov summarized.
As Monokle previously reported, Sokolov listed several reasons for Lada's plummeting sales, including:
- Tightened borrowing requirements and overall credit conditions due to the Central Bank.
- Foreign brand dumping.
- Overburdened dealership inventories.
- Aggressive discounting by dealers.
- Inflation, rising scrappage fees, and production and supply chain issues putting additional pressure on the market.
In short, a perfect storm of macroeconomic challenges, tighter credit, oversupply, and fierce competition are grinding Lada and the overall car market in Russia to a screeching halt in 2025.
"The significant drop in Lada car sales, as revealed by Maxim Sokolov, is primarily due to a perfect storm of factors such as finance-related challenges, competition from foreign brands, and oversupply in the business sector."
"The slump in Lada's sales this year has been exacerbated by high interest rates, harsh credit crunch, and cheap Chinese cars, all of which are elements related to the broader business and finance landscape."
