Moscow auto show predicts strong growth

Foreign automotive companies hailed the revival of Russia’s auto market this week as the Moscow International Motor Show (MIMS) opened on August 25, 2010.

With organizers of this year’s Moscow auto show expecting an attendance figure close to the 2008 boom year when 1.6 million people turned out, manufacturers and dealers are upbeat. “Everything is back to the level of 2008 – a huge area, crazy investments,” Oleg Datsko, chief executive of internet sales at Auto-Dealer.ru, told Reuters.
 
Similarly, Ford’s Russia head Mark Ovenden told Bloomberg that Russia would “certainly be the most significant growth market in Europe, and a very significant growth market globally.”

The market suffered as a result of the global financial crisis, with sales collapsing in 2009 when cheap car loans were impossible and unemployment was high. This year has seen a change in fortunes, driven partly by the government’s cash for clunkers program, with car sales for the first seven months up 9 percent on 2009.

On sidelines of the show, Opel Vice President Alain Visser told Reuters that Russia’s car market would increase by 500,000 units this year to reach 1.9 million.

The Moscow motor show is dominated by top-end cars this year, but it is not only the super-rich who are eyeing newer models as the economic outlook improves. “Things were looking up at work, so it felt like the right time to upgrade,” Bloomberg quoted one Russian consumer, who extended a loan to purchase her latest Citroen, as saying.
 
Many foreign manufacturers, including VW, Ford, Jaguar, Toyota and Volvo are showcasing new models at the event as they boost production in Russia.   Below, President of Volvo Cars Russia David Thomas helps introduce Volvo’s S60 on the event’s opening day: 

MIMS opens to the public on August 27, 2010, and runs until August 29, 2010.