The vases rise in price again
Since July 2 of this year, AvtoVAZ announced a change in the recommended prices for its cars. Most of all the rise in price affected the Lada Granta model – its increase in its price was 7.3%, t.e. The new price will start from 259 thousand. rub. The rest of the lineup, the change in the price affected slightly less – 4×4 went up by about 2.5% (now from 333.3 thousand. rub.), Kalina by 2.1% (now from 293.9 thousand. rub.), Samara by 0.7% (now from 272.3 thousand. rub.) and Priora by 0.5% (now from 333 thousand. rub.).
As the main reasons for the next increase in prices, the increase in production costs, preparation for the release of new options and the expansion of the gamma of manufactured configurations are indicated. It should be noted that the recommended price for LADA Granta has recently risen by about 5.5% (from April 1). Prices for the rest of the AvtoVAZ model range were increased a little earlier-from February 1st.
According to the editor-in-chief of Auto Business magazine Sergei Baranov, there is a slow but steady price rapprochement between the products of the AvtoVAZ plant and foreign cars, which will be the main intrigue in the Russian car market over the next two to three years. On the one hand, the new modifications of the Togliatti plant are gradually entering a higher price category, and on the other hand, more and more budget class foreign cars appear on our market.
However, AvtoVAZ President Igor Komarov noted at a meeting of shareholders that the potential of this process has already been exhausted. In his opinion, the new foreign cars are unlikely to lower below today’s price level, which are now popular in Russia Hyundai Solaris (from 430 thousand. rub.) and Renault Logan (from 330 thousand. rub.).
At the moment, a rather significant slowdown in growth is observed in the Russian automobile market. According to experts, during 2012 the market will grow by no more than 10%. For the first half of this year, AvtoVAZ sales in Russia decreased to 250,732 cars, t.e. by 14%. Thus, in order to maintain the planned profitability in the context of reducing the volume of sales and the termination of the release of “classics”, the company has to increase prices for its own products, said Oleg Datskyiv, director of the popular Auto-Dealer self-portal.
