Hundreds of car models available in Russia through parallel import — research agency

MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. Consumers can buy 501 car models from 85 brands owing to parallel import, while only 68 models from seventeen brands are officially represented in Russia, Executive Director of Avtostat research agency Sergey Udalov said on Friday. "We contracted from 74 [car] brands to seventeen. However, figures reveal that it is actually possible to buy 85 brands and 501 models on the market. Why? Because the so-called parallel import began to actively develop in our country. This is the import of automobiles without the permission of the rights holders of these brands. We see that seventeen brands and 68 models remain officially, while unofficially we have 85 brands and 501 models," Udalov said. According to the Association of Russian Automobile Dealers, the pool of vehicle brands on the Russian market plummeted more than four-fold to fourteen by the end of this year, including three Russian and eleven Chinese brands. The share of Chinese cars has already reached 78%. Read more