Ukravtoprom notes 6% decline in car demand in Ukraine in Nov because of border blocking, Auto-Consulting posts uptick in sales

MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) - The registration of new cars in Ukraine dropped by 6% to 5,385 vehicles in November 2023, compared to October, Ukrainian media said, citing the Ukravtoprom association.

"Obviously, the reason is the border blocking by Polish carriers, which has increased the time of car delivery to Ukraine and the waiting time for consumers," the association said on its website.

At the same time, the market grew 74% year-on-year in November, and Toyota remained on top of the list with 854 vehicles registered, down 8% from October 2023 but up 22% from November 2022.

Skoda climbed from the third to the second position with 517 vehicles registered in October (+8% from October and +90% from November 2022), while Volkswagen ranked third with 476 registered vehicles (-17%, +266%), the association said.

According to Ukravtoprom, the November 2023 top ten also included Renault with 383 vehicles registered, Nissan with 309, BMW with 253, Mercedes-Benz with 222, Mazda with 189, Suzuki with 180, and Citroen with 178.

The Renault Duster compact CUV remains the month bestseller with 355 initial registrations.

"Over 11 months of 2023, Ukrainians purchased 55,000 new vehicles, up 61% from the respective period of 2022," the report said.

Ukrainian media also said that the Auto-Consulting information analysis group had analyzed car sales in November and noted the border blocking's effect on the situation, while saying that sales grew 1.7% from October 2023 to 6,098 vehicles.

"November is a traditionally strong month for the car market. The border blocking situation interfered in 2023 but dealers still managed to surpass the 6,000-car threshold. The thing is that the growth could have been even larger," the experts said.

They reported an 87% growth in sales since November 2022.

In the opinion of the group experts, the three leaders retained their position, but while Toyota sold the same number of vehicles as it did in October (961), Volkswagen lost 10%, and Skoda gained 13%. Renault, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and Suzuki posted larger sales. Citroen gained most in November (+64%) owning to C-Elysee and moved to the tenth position in the rating from the 15th position it occupied in October.

According to the report, Hyundai suffered heavy losses in November (-27%) and was downgraded to the 11th position, where it had not been for years. In all, according to Auto-Consulting, dealers sold 59,000 vehicles over 11 months of this year, up 64% from the year before.

As reported by Ukravtoprom, Ukrainians registered 37,900 new cars in 2022, 63% fewer than in 2021, while Auto-Consulting reported a 61.5% decline in sales to 40,080 cars.