As winter hits areas of Europe harder than others, a migration of large used high emission 4x4s from Western Europe to Russia has begun, according to Autorola.

This cross border trend not only shows that Europe is becoming one large market from an online remarketing perspective, irrespective of VAT and tax, but the Continent’s vendors and buyers are proving that there should be no such thing as a used car that can’t find a home. A recent good example is Lithuanian and Latvian buyers who are currently sourcing 4x4s from Autorola Poland from vendors across Europe to satisfy the growing demand in Russia.

At a time when the large used 4×4 market is virtually coming to a standstill in western Europe due to the increased penalties being dished out to high CO2 cars, Russians are seeking these cars in high numbers for very practical reasons. There are many roads in Russia that are in very poor condition with pot holes capable of swallowing small children and large parts of the country suffer from very low temperatures where snow and ice are permanent fixtures for months on end.

The large 4×4, irrespective of brand, is able to cope with these extreme conditions which is why they have found favour with Russian businesses and businessmen, which in turn is feeding this cross border demand.

In countries such as Holland, Belgium and Germany 4x4s, particularly the older ones and those with large petrol engines, have fallen out of favour with buyers because of high running costs including fuel and tax. The environmental lobby has also forced many western European Governments to introduce CO2 based tax structures that tax large 4x4s very heavily due to their high emissions.

On this basis alone western European countries are only too happy to offer these vehicles for sale on the Autorola online trading platform. Who they get purchased by and where they end up isn’t a consideration for asset owners, all they know is that they have been purchased through a secure online platform they can trust and been paid within a few days of them being collected by the new owner.

”We saw how cross border trading via our online platform helped the likes of Portugal and Spain dispose of tens of thousands of unwanted used cars because of the poor economic conditions in these countries,” said Peter Grøftehauge, Autorola’s chief executive.

”Buyers bought these vehicles to feed the growing demand from eastern Europe for used vehicles of all ages, thus helping prevent used cars sitting around in storage yards for months at a time becoming a huge drain on the country’s cash flow.

”Demand for 4x4s in Russia is high because they don’t currently penalise higher emission vehicles and instead focus more on practicality and suitability for the country’s road and weather conditions. We believe this trend will continue from west to east all year round rather than just experiencing a peak of demand in the winter months,” he added.