Russia's March sales fall 6%, but industry bullish on Q2 rebound

New-car sales in Russia fell 5.7 percent last month, dashing hopes that an 0.8 percent rise in February meant that growth was slowly returning.

A total of 148,676 vehicles were sold in March, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said in a statement. Despite the drop, the AEB remains positive about a recovery in the next few months.

"It is worth mentioning that March 2020 was the best month last year before the lockdown in April," said Thomas Staertzel, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.

Staertzel expects car sales to grow in the next few months compared with the same period of 2020, which he called "the worst ever months in automobile industry."

Russia's top-selling brands had mixed results last month, with sales at market leader Lada rising 3 percent and No. 2 Kia up 1 percent. Third-place Hyundai and Renault at No. 4, however, saw their volumes drop 3 percent and 15 percent respectively.

• Click here for Russian sales for March, 3 months

Fifth-ranked Toyota fell 18 percent, while VW brand was down 6 percent.

In the first quarter, sales in Russia fell 2.8 percent to 387,322.