Car sales in Russia halve last year

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:29 January 15 2010]
• Comments

Sales of new cars in Russia plummeted 49 percent from the previous year's record high to 1.46 million vehicles in 2009, the lowest level in the past four years, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said on Thursday.

Martin Jahn, vice president of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, said car sales were expected to rise to some 1.5 million vehicles in 2010 as Russia emerges from the worst recession in a decade.

Separately, the ailing Russian auto giant AvtoVAZ said on Wednesday it planned to increase output by more than 50 percent in 2010 to 446,000 vehicles in an apparent bid to compensate for a sharp decline in sales last year.

AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest carmaker, has been hard hit by the global economic crisis, with sales slumping due to depressed consumer demand.

According to AEB data, AvtoVAZ's sales dropped 44 percent year-on-year in 2009 to about 349,490 cars.