Seven new Porsches across Tatarstan: how the luxury car market is changing
Sales of new premium cars in Tatarstan in the first half of 2024 increased by 12% — ffrom 33 to 37 cars. In Russia in general, the growth of premium cars was only 2%, and in June, sales in this segment decreased by 41%. Due to high prices, it is becoming a “niche” designed for a very wealthy buyer. Residents of Tatarstan in 2024 remain loyal to German brands — Mercedes, Porsche and BMW entered the top 3 sales in the region. Read about how the luxury car market is changing and who is replacing Mercedes and Porsche in a report of the analytic staff of Realnoe Vremya.
Mercedes, which officially left Russia, is losing its market share
According to the results of the first half of 2024, sales of new premium cars and sports cars in Russia grew by only 2% — from 1897 to 1943 cars, press secretary of Avtostat Info Tatyana Akimova told Realnoe Vremya.
More than 23% of all sales in this segment were taken by the Mercedes S-class, which is supplied to Russia through parallel import channels. In a year-on-year comparison, sales of this model fell by 18% — from 547 to 447 cars. In total, 544 new Mercedes cars were sold in Russia over the six months against 638 a year earlier, Akimova noted.
The 2nd place in the premium segment was occupied by the Chinese brand Hongqi: 328 cars were sold in January-June 2024 — this is 66% higher than the result of last year. Among Hongqi premium models, the Hongqi H9 model entered the top 10 segment — 257 cars (versus 21 units in 2023) and also Hongqi E H9 — 71 cars (-60%).
BMW is in 3rd place in sales: 295 cars were sold in the first half of the year against 220 units last year (+34%). The BMW 7 Series model entered the top 3 among premium cars for January-June 2024, showing a result of 195 units (+40%).
The largest sales market for premium cars is Moscow where sales of such cars grew by 11% in the first half of 2024. Tatarstan today ranks 6th in sales of new premium cars. In the republic, 37 new luxury cars were sold in six months, which is 12% more than in the first half of 2023.
Mercedes (12 cars) is in 1st place in sales in Tatarstan, Porsche (7 cars) is in 2nd place, and Audi (5 cars) is in 3rd place. For comparison, in Bashkortostan, buyers purchased only 11 new premium cars versus eight cars during the same period last year.
At the same time, a monthly analysis of sales shows that in June 2024, sales in the premium segment fell by 41% — from 450 to 266 cars, notes Tatyana Akimova.
Another important trend is the emergence of new Chinese brands on the market, its positions on the market continue to strengthen.
Dealers are starting to switch to China
As one of the market players told Realnoe Vremya, the former Porsche team in Kazan is starting to sell the Chinese premium brand SERES.
“One of the SERES dealers in Kazan used to deal with Porsche cars,” clarified head of Product and Strategy at SERES AITO in Russia Alexander Zagorovsky for Realnoe Vremya. “But in fact, the SERES project in Russia was headed by MB RUS, a team with 30 years of experience in the premium segment for the Mercedes-Benz brand.”
“The Chinese automobile industry is developing at a very high rate: much faster than manufacturers from other countries. In recent years, Chinese cars have made a huge breakthrough and in most of their parameters are not inferior to their competitors, and often surpass them,” he believes. “Most brands from the Celestial Kingdom are young and have not yet become strong global brands. But at the same time, in the segment of electric and hybrid cars, Chinese companies are beginning to take leading positions,” notes Zagorovsky.
According to him, along with the growing popularity of this segment, the authority of Chinese brands is rapidly accumulating:
“And the growth in sales of premium electric cars and hybrids in 2024 shows an increase of more than 1,000%. Therefore, cars on new energy sources are the new market leaders.”
The share of Chinese brands will grow
According to KAN AVTO Group, the top 3 car sales in the premium segment included brands such as TANK, Exeed and Toyota.
According to the results of the first half of 2024, sales of premium cars in the KAN AVTO Group increased by approximately 107% compared to the same period in 2023, and their share of total sales in the first six months was 9.5%, Khalilova commented. “This result was largely possible thanks to Chinese brands, since the products of some of them have become an alternative to premium brands that have stopped officially supplying their models to our country,” she explains.
“The pace of development of the auto industry in China cannot be underestimated. They already occupy half of the Russian market,” says Rita Khalilova. “Promoted brands are gaining popularity every year, they are already quite in demand both in the new and second-hand markets. This is facilitated by the expansion of the dealer network, the release of interesting new products, guarantees from importers and dealers, as well as the availability of spare parts.”