Western sanctions against Russia have boosted demand for China-made cars, which could continue as long as the sanctions remain in place, said Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer at the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Chinese automakers are also seeking to assemble vehicles in Russia and localise production, Xu said.
“There’s still huge demand in the Russian market but that won’t necessarily be solely reliant on imports,” Xu said.
“China’s auto exports to Russia will still be in high demand over next 2-3 years and after that China’s auto sector will likely increase their localization in the Russian market.”
Russia was the top destination for China’s auto exports for the first seven months of the year, CAAM data showed, 464,000 cars sold. Imported Chinese cars account for 49% of Russia’s market, reaching 40,000 units in June, compared with a pre-war share of just 7% in June 2021, according to analytics firm Autostat.
