Year to date, 383 691 cars have been sold.

Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, commented: “Total market performance in March is bad, of course, but not much worse than expected. What we are seeing now in the sales statistics is the long-predicted 'hole' in consumer demand, caused by the pull-ahead of car purchases at the end of last year, and compounded by heavy price inflation in the current year. Sooner or later, the situation will stabilise, but we are not at this point yet.”

In response HIS Automotive said: “The Russian light-vehicle market is currently undergoing something of an existential crisis as a unique combination of macroeconomic and political circumstances are completely undermining any possibility of positive sales growth in the market.

“The weak rouble continues to push up the price of imported completely built-up units (CBU), and imported components. There was also a comparatively high base comparisons with March 2014 which also contributed to the accelerated decline. There was also a move to clear dealer stocks of 2014 model year cars in January and February which also ensured that the relative performance during those months was marginally better, while consumer confidence has fallen through the floor as a result of the continuing macroeconomic chaos.

“Russia's national statistics agency RosStat has released its consumer confidence survey for the first quarter of 2015. The consumer confidence index has fallen by 14 percentage points compared with the previous quarter to -32%. This is the lowest figure since the first quarter of 2009.”

IHS Automotive's Russian market analyst for automotive forecasting Svyatoslav Kuchko added: "Some customers have probably been waiting for the loan subsidy program, which started on 1 April."

Mr Kuchko believes that the March decline represents the market's nadir in terms of 2015's overall performance. He said: "I think that this March the market has already reached the bottom in terms of year-on-year decline. In the coming months the market will continue to fall but not at such an accelerated rate. Firstly, the comparison base will be lower (in April 2014 a noticeable market decline in Russia began). Secondly, the loan subsidy program is expected to support the demand. Besides the inflation, which was galloping in the beginning of the year, is slowing down and the rouble exchange rate is currently improving. On 30 April the board of the Central Bank of Russia is expected to discuss the base rate. If it decides to lower it, this (together the loan subsidy program), would make credit buying (which made up 35% of the total market in 2014) a bit more affordable again."

But the company added that there is still much pessimism regarding the medium- and long-term prospects for the Russian market, highlighted by General Motors' (GM) decision to withdraw from the market as a full-range, volume manufacturer at the end of the year, despite being one of the market leaders until a few years ago. For the full year IHS Automotive's light-vehicle forecast still stands at 1.81 million units, a decline of 27.4% % y/y.