What the year 2006 was like for analysts and the Russian car market

The year 2006 became special not only for the founders of the future analytical agency "Avtostat", but also for the entire Russian automotive industry, which entered a new, dynamic stage of its development. It was in this year that Avtostat LLC was officially registered - a company that began its journey with the publication of the "Automobile Market of Russia" directories and gradually turned into a key source of analytics for automakers, dealers and research centers.

By this time, the team had already been collecting and systematizing data on sales, import flows and the regional structure of the car market for three years. The demand for information was growing rapidly, and along with it came individual requests for research - not just statistics, but analytics that could explain trends and predict market development.

The idea to create our own legal entity came over lunch for three - Sergey Tselikov, Sergey Udalov and Vadim Shvartsman literally "laid out the business on a napkin", discussing the strategy, goals and objectives of the future agency. Soon everything became official: on May 2, 2006, the company received a registration certificate. This day became the starting point of a new era - both for Avtostat and for the entire automotive sector of the country.

Meanwhile, the market itself was experiencing a real boom. 2006 went down in history as the first year when sales of foreign cars in Russia exceeded the sales of domestic ones. The total market volume increased by 23%, reaching 1.77 million cars. At the same time, sales of Russian brands decreased by 10% - to 752 thousand, while demand for foreign cars jumped by almost two-thirds, exceeding the million mark. Another 280 thousand used cars with foreign passports arrived in the country through "gray" schemes.

The main driver of growth was the active development of car loans - the share of cars bought on credit reached approximately 40%. People were increasingly allowing themselves the car of their dreams without waiting for the full amount, and banks were competing to offer attractive terms. The fall in the dollar exchange rate from 28.4 to 26.6 rubles made imported cars more affordable, and the queues in car dealerships longer. Some popular models had to be waited for weeks, or even months. The atmosphere in the market was like a "gold rush": money was flowing like a river, car dealerships were opening one after another, and brands were competing in the scale of investments.

2006 was also a year of rapid growth in dealer networks. Large automotive holdings reported monthly on the launch of new dealerships, and the total number of dealers working with foreign brands increased by almost 50%. By the end of the year, there were about 1900 of them. Almost all key international brands finally entered Russia - some through their own representative offices, some through large distributors.

In Izhevsk, the SOK group bet on the assembly of Kia and produced over 24 thousand Spectra sedans, as well as a trial batch of the new Rio. At the Avtoframos plant in Moscow, 48.5 thousand Renault Logan were assembled - one of the main symbols of an "affordable foreign car" for Russians. The price of Logan in 2006 ranged from 9 to 13 thousand dollars, which made it noticeably more profitable than the Ford Focus, which cost from 11.7 to 17.2 thousand.

Other assembly sites kept up as well. 48.4 thousand cars were assembled at TagAZ, and the Kaliningrad Avtotor produced more than 40 thousand cars of various brands - from Chevrolet and KIA to BMW and even Hummer. Meanwhile, at AVTOVAZ, under the management of ROE, a large-scale transformation began: the management promised to build a second plant in Togliatti and launch 12 new models of classes B, C and D. A framework agreement was signed with Magna to develop a joint model, and even a symbolic "first stone" was laid in Togliatti. However, these plans remained on paper - time made its own adjustments.

Foreign car concerns, on the contrary, actively invested in localization. In April, the construction of a Toyota plant in St. Petersburg with a capacity of 50 thousand cars per year was launched with the possibility of subsequent expansion to 200 thousand. On May 29, an investment agreement was signed for the construction of a Volkswagen plant in Kaluga, and on October 28, the first stone was solemnly laid. On June 13, an agreement followed on the creation of a Nissan plant near St. Petersburg with a capacity of 50 thousand cars per year, the construction of which began twelve months later.

These projects determined the vector of development of the industry for many years to come. Russia was turning into one of the largest car markets in Europe, where foreign companies sought not only to sell, but also to produce.

The top 10 foreign cars for the year looked like this: