Car showroom in Russia. Photo source: Yuri Kadobnov / AFP / Profimedia
In the first eight months of 2025, the number of points of sale and showrooms in Russia decreased by 9%. In cities with over one million inhabitants dealers have closed at an accelerated pace, Yandex Maps, the Russian counterpart of Google Maps, consulted by Forbes shows.
The biggest reduction in the number of showrooms registered in Rostov-on-Don, where almost a third of the car dealers drew the shutter. The ranking is completed by Voronej, Volgograd and Samara, notes The Moscow Times.
And large markets, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, car representatives decided to close because of the low sales rate.
There are no good news in the future for car dealers, who face serious financial difficulties or are on the verge of termination of activity, says the president of the Association “Russian Auto Dealers” (Road), Alexei Podshchekoldin.
According to him, the lack of demand for new cars leads to losses and lack of profit, which makes the costs of sellers increase.
“In Russia, regional dealers are currently selling only 220-250 cars per year, and in the Capital-about 400. For comparison, in the US, the same indicator is about 1000 cars per year. At such a low level of sales, many Russian dealers become unprofitable, which leads to their mass closure,” the expert explained.
Not only are the salons that sell Chinese cars, which flooded the market, but also the points of sale of cars delivered by parallel and “alternative”, says the general director of ROLF, the largest Auro dealer, Svetlana Vinogradova.
The Avtodom car dealer closed its location for Lamborghini and the point of sale for BMW in Moscow.
“An almost perfect storm”
“The negative model can withstand one or two months, but when, over six months, or even a year, the whole business works with a negative net profit, this leads to consequences such as a series of bankruptcy,” explained Vinogradova.
Sales of new car decreased 2-2.5 times compared to the first half of 2010, because cars became less accessible to the Russians, says Yuri Chistov, the Director of Development of the Fresh car market.
“There are no clear signals that the power of buying the population will increase in the next year or two. This year an almost perfect storm has been created,” the expert noted.
According to the self-state agency, the Russian Institute of Statistics, between January 2025, cars sales in the country decreased by 23% compared to the same period last year, up to about 773,000 units.
The agency experts forecast that, at the end of the year, the market decrease will be 20% compared to 2024, ie at most 1.25 million cars will be sold.
Among the main factors that influence this decrease are the high rates of car credits, the pepper price of new cars, the high level of inflation and the tendency of the Russians to start saving.
