OREANDA-NEWS. February 09, 2015. Sales of AvtoVAZ fell by 26% to 17.5 thousand vehicles in January compared with the same month last year, said the company's president Bo Andersson. In this case, more negative dynamics of Lada was the last time in August of 2014 - then the decrease was 32% up to 26.4 thousand cars (though last August was the worst of the year and for the Russian car market: sales fell by 25.8% to 172 thousand cars).

According to the newspaper "Kommersant", market sources explain the January fall not only by a decline in demand, but also by a shortage of goods. One of the dealers of the brand said that since December of 2014 sales rose sharply (in the background of ruble devaluation buyers bought goods actively, including cars), in January warehouses of Lada dealers were almost empty. At the same time, in December, when the most car plants went into a plus (so, KIA increased by 26%, Nissan – by 15%, Renault – by 2%), AvtoVAZ fell by 9% to 35.3 thousand cars. According to dealers, the first deliveries of Lada this year went towards the end of January. AvtoVAZ was in the corporate vacation until January 18th, and thus, for the last month it managed to produce 20 thousand cars.

Vladimir Bespalov from "VTB Capital" added that negotiations with the dealers of AvtoVAZ could slow down the shipment of cars – the plant planned to go to one hundred percent advance payment, he says, but it did not happen. The argument about the slowdown in sales due to lack of vehicles in plants and "depleted stocks" is estimated by Mr. Bespalov as it concern more to foreign producers: it was really "mad" demand on foreign cars in December, and low stocks may influence on their January sales. In addition, foreign manufacturers in January are not formed fully the understanding of the pricing policy, so they were not in hurry to sell, he said. In general, the expert predicts drop in the market of passenger cars in January, more than by 20%.