September deserves to be historic because it became one of the most disastrous in the history of Ukraine. In the first month of autumn, as we already wrote, sales of new cars fell below the plinth. Interestingly, despite the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, almost 300 new cars were registered here in September. The question, however, is who and how registered them, and whether it was done directly in the regions where the anti-terrorist operation is underway, or in other cities at the place of registration?
One way or another, the all-Ukrainian leader in sales in September was not Lanos, nor even a Chinese budget car. The first place in the list went to the Toyota Corolla model.
The second place also belongs to Toyota. It was taken by the far from most affordable crossover RAV4.
The top ten leaders also included Toyota Camry and Toyota Prado. Almost three hundred Ukrainians chose this business sedan and full-fledged SUV. Most of them are natives of Kyiv. As for the Prado, the vast majority of buyers are also Kyiv residents.
The TOP-10 traditionally also included models of the domestic ZAZ. Of course, compared to previous years, current sales can be considered negligible, but Ukrainian cars still occupy a significant market share. In the overall standings, ZAZ Lanos turned out to be not as desirable as Toyota Corolla and Toyota RAV4, but took 3rd position.
The cheaper brother of Lanos - ZAZ Sens - was awarded 6th place. It yielded to Renault Logan and turned out to be slightly more popular than... Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. What a paradox.
It is also worth mentioning ZAZ Vida. The flagship of the Zaporizhzhia Automobile Plant, unfortunately, dropped out of the top ten. In general, most of the new ZAZs found their owners in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv regions.
The golden mean in the TOP-10 bestsellers was Renault Logan. We will not speculate on the topic of deserved/undeserved popularity of this model. Instead, we recommend watching video reports from our long-term test drive of the diesel Logan.
Note that the budget Renault gained the greatest popularity (based on September results) in Kyiv.
8th place in our rating went to Hyundai Accent. Once one of the most popular cars on the market, it was chosen mainly by Kyiv residents.
The penultimate from the end was Skoda Octavia. Car of the Year 2014 in Ukraine, leader in its class and one of the most desired Skodas among our compatriots took 9th place. In September, almost 100 cars were registered, almost half of which were "registered" in the same capital. In Kyiv, you can service and buy a Skoda car at "Praha Auto".
10th place. Geely Emgrand EC7 - this model is the most popular based on the results of the past 9 months. However, based on September results, it took last place in the top ten. Among the regions, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and... Donetsk lead.
A bit of analytics
Analysts and experts may have different opinions about the decrease or increase in demand for certain models. Of course, one thing is indisputable - the situation in the country greatly affected purchasing power and the very need to buy a new car. And the hryvnia exchange rate also made itself known with frightening price tags. One way or another, the drop in demand for truly cheap and until recently people's cars says one thing - their target audience now simply cannot afford such a luxury...
The best-selling car models in Ukraine
(to build the rating, data provided by the association "Ukravtoprom" were used)
| No. | Car model | Number of sales |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toyota Corolla | 196 |
| 2 | Toyota RAV4 | 175 |
| 3 | ZAZ Lanos | 172 |
| 4 | Toyota Camry | 168 |
| 5 | Renault Logan | 161 |
| 6 | ZAZ Sens | 143 |
| 7 | Toyota Land Cruiser Prado | 121 |
| 8 | Hyundai Accent | 112 |
| 9 | Skoda Octavia | 104 |
| 10 | Geely Emgrand EC7 | 96 |
As for the increase in the entry of such non-budget cars as Toyota Camry and Toyota Prado into the top ten, in our opinion, this may be due to the renewal of the government's fleet and not only. The second point: wealthy Ukrainians, realizing the impossibility of further planning the situation, decided to invest money in new cars anyway. Just a couple of examples can serve as confirmation. So, in September, more new Audi Q7 and VW Touareg were sold than Geely CK or Citroen C-Elysee! And the demand for Audi Q5 and Renault Duster simply equalized. But we will talk about this phenomenon in the next material. Follow our publications!
