Russian new car registrations saw strong growth for the first quarter of 2018 with the growth also seen in the true fleet sector.

Lada joins Toyota as top performing brand in true fleet in Russia

Building on from 2017’s first signs of recovery in the new car sector, Dataforce figures show the overall new car market rose 15.9% to 328,999 units for the January-March period, with true fleets up 11.4%, private registrations rise 16.2% and special channels up 21.6%.

For true fleets, this equated to around 32,000 registrations, giving a share of 9.7% of the marketplace and with room to grow. Dataforce also noted that Special Channels (Short-Term Rentals, Dealerships and Manufacturers) hold a significantly lower share compared to other countries, standing at less than 4% of the total market; again showing how the market could expand.

Within the manufacturer league table, Lada and Toyota remain in the lead for true fleet and jointly represent a quarter of the market, though they lost 0.8% and 1.1% of market share respectively when compared to January-March 2017.

Kia (third, +16.7%) and Volkswagen (fourth) swapped positions followed by Dacia and Hyundai who both achieved a double-digit growth rate for the first three months. The top 10 are completed by Škoda (up 30.9%, putting it in the top spot for absolute volume growth), Mercedes and BMW.

Dataforce also noted the difference between the most popular models for fleets and private drivers.

The two most popular company cars – Lada Largus and Toyota Camry – only rank 13th and 20th respectively in the private market, while Volkswagen Polo and Hyundai Accent have a lot of fans in both customer groups. And the Toyota Land Cruiser, Lada 4×4 and Dacia/Renault Logan, which rank 5-7 for fleets, don’t even show up in the top 15 for the private market.

Diesel saw strong growth – Q1 fleet registrations for diesel cars by 28.9%, giving the fuel type its highest Q1 share in the Russian Market since Dataforce started covering the country in 2012 – but the resultant 17.7% held by diesel is still far below any other European country. OEMs such as Land Rover or BMW see a diesel take-up rate of 80% and 70% respectively while marques such as Lada, Chevrolet or Mazda only offer petrol engines.