Russia Disappoints

Russia is one of the BRIC countries, the folks thatare supposed to power the world to new prosperity. Too bad Russia is running out of steam. Russian car sales dropped 12 percent in May, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) told Reuters. From January to May, light vehicle sales were down 4 percent in Russia, says the AEB. In April, sales were down 8 percent. It looks like Russia is coming down with the European contagion. Thinking that the slump will continue, the AEB cut its forecast for 2013 to 2.8 million, down from 2.94 million in 2012. Russia had its eyes set on displacing Germany as Europe's largest car market this year. At the current rate, it might have to be postponed until next year. Largest automaker in Russia is the Autovaz-Renault-Nissan Group with a 30.6 percent market share, followed by the Volkswagen Group with a 10.9 share. The GM group is third with a 9.1 percent share. Full data can be downloaded here. And what about the rest of the BRICs? In Brazil, new registrations in the first five months of the year are 8 percent ahead of the same period in 2012. In India, "May is the 6th month in a row of year-on-year decline for the Indian car market at -8% to 193,338 registrations, which brings the year-to-date total to 1,081,177 units, down 11% on 2012," writes our resident global car counter Matt Gasnier. In China, total vehicle sales rose 12.6 percent to  9 million in the first five months. In May, total vehicle sales were up 9.8 percent to 1.8 million units. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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