Car prices in Russia have risen 300% over past 14 years

The price of cars in Russia has quadrupled over the past 14 years, with the average cost climbing to 3.3 million rubles ($42,252) by the end of the first half of 2026, Aleksey Podshchekoldin, president of the Russian Automobile Dealers Association (ROAD), has said.

He noted that high prices are the main reason why the car market has shrunk by half over the same period, since 2012, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

According to him, the average price of a new car in Russia stood at 800,000 rubles ($10,243) in 2012.

By the first half of 2026, the size of the Russian car market had fallen from nearly three million vehicles sold annually in 2012 to around 1.5 million.

Sergey Tselikov, head of the analytical agency Autostat, said the Russian automotive market has already reached the limits of consumer purchasing power.

"Either household incomes will rise, or prices will have to come down. Dealers are interested in keeping prices at a reasonable level," Tselikov added.

Podshchekoldin identified several factors driving up vehicle prices, including the Central Bank's key interest rate, the ruble exchange rate, value-added tax, the recycling fee and logistics costs.

"Delivering vehicles from China has become five times more expensive and takes much longer than deliveries from Europe," the ROAD chief remarked.

Anton Shaparin, vice president of the National Automobile Union, argued that the recycling fee, which is scheduled to increase until 2030, will make imported Chinese cars unaffordable for many consumers.

"For localisation, Chinese companies will need to invest tens of billions of rubles, and those investments will have to be recouped. Hoping that Chinese cars produced in Russia will be as inexpensive as they are in their home market is, to say the least, naive," Shaparin stressed.

ROAD forecasts that access to new vehicles will continue to decline. While purchasing a new car required around 30 average monthly salaries in 2014, it now requires more than 40.

By 2030, new vehicles could be affordable for only 5-7% of the population, the association predicts.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov