3 November 2025
The Russian auto industry, which experienced a “clinical death” after the departure of Western automakers and then recovered in 2023-2024, is once again heading for the bottom.
According to Rosstat statistics , automobile production in Russia plummeted by 20% between January and September, returning to its lowest levels seen in 2022. The decline in the auto industry is accelerating each quarter: from January to March, it was 9.2% year-on-year, 23% in the second quarter, and 26.7% in the third.
In the first year of the war, the auto industry lost approximately 50% of its output, and total car production in Russia fell to 450,000 units— the lowest level since the first half of the 1970s, when the Gorky and Tolyatti auto factories in the USSR had not yet been launched.
By mid-last year, vehicle production had reached 80% of pre-sanction levels, but is now back to just 50%, according to Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the German Institute for International Security Studies. Truck manufacturers were the ones with the fastest decline, with output plummeting by 30% over the first nine months and 41% in September.
AvtoVAZ, Russia’s largest automaker, produced 500,000 Lada vehicles last year. But this year, it cut its plan to 300,000 and was forced to switch its Togliatti plant to a four-day week.
Kamaz, the largest truck manufacturer, posted a net loss of 29.1 billion rubles in the first nine months of the year—7.6 times greater than the previous year—after truck sales in the country plummeted by 57%.
Nearly 80% of passenger car sales in Russia are financed. But bank loans became unavailable to Russians after the Central Bank hiked the key interest rate to 20-year highs to curb inflation in the war-torn economy. As a result, car sales fell by 22% from January to September, according to Avtostat statistics
. Due to losses, hundreds of car dealerships have closed across the country since the beginning of the year , and in some cities with over a million residents, the decline has reached double-digits: 29% in Rostov-on-Don, 18% in St. Petersburg, 17% in Krasnoyarsk, and 11% in Moscow.
New car sales have fallen by 2-2.5 times compared to the first half of the 2010s, as cars have become less affordable for Russians, says Yuri Chistov, Development Director of the automotive marketplace FRESH: “There are no clear signs that the population’s purchasing power will increase in the next year or two. This year has been a near-perfect storm.”
I have the strong feeling that the downward trend for mafia land’s automobile industry will continue. Mafia land simply can’t build cars that are even halfway decent.
I’m curious about the production levels last year. 80% of pre-sanctioned production. What does that say?
Sir Cap, take those numbers with a pinch of salt.
Well, the West can’t even produce toilet paper, since all goods and food are imported from indochina…
We can make good cars though.
With Chinese motors and batteries. 🤣
Sadly, that’s true.
There’s no comparison.
My toilet paper isn’t from there. My ass gets only the best.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!