Russian Auto Market: 3m Vehicles in 2008

The Russian new-car market will grow to at least 3 million sales this year, senior General Motors and Ford executives say. General Motors overtook Ford as the largest foreign-brand auto group in Russia last year. Chris Lacey, GM executive director of Central and Eastern Europe, said in an interview that although the market will grow to 3 million this year from 2.5 million in 2007, he does not expect Russian domestic automakers to continue losing market share. As foreign carmakers take an increasing share of the market, Russian brands fell to about 35 percent last year from about 45 percent of a 1.8-million-unit market in 2005.

Ford Russia President Nigel Brackenbury said Ford will focus on “profitable and sustainable growth in Russia” using imports as well as its expanding plant in St. Petersburg. GM build cars in St. Petersburg as well, and in a joint venture with Russian automaker AvtoVAZ, and with contract manufacturers in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Russian enclave region of Kaliningrad.

Russia is the biggest market in the 39 booming central and eastern European markets that Lacey oversees for GM. Sales in this region will grow more than 20 percent to 7 million units this year, Lacey said. Last year, sales grew to 5.79 million from 4.67 million in 2006. “We held a 9.5% share of that 5.8 million last year,” Lacey said. ” Our goal is keep increasing our market share on a profitable basis.”