VW has announced that it will stop selling Seat cars in Russia by early next year because of the country’s economic downturn and weakening ruble. In September, Opel Group announced that it would scale back production in Russia citing similar reasons.
Automakers have been hit hard by the Russian economy’s downturn this year, aggravated by Western sanctions over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis and a drop in the oil price.
“The Seat brand is stopping sales of new cars in Russia from January 1, 2015, due to the contraction of sectors in which it is represented, the general economic situation in Russia and currency rate fluctuations,” a spokesman for Volkswagen Group Rus told Reuters.
Seat only sold 78 cars in Russia in October (half the usual amount) and 1,324 vehicles in the first ten months of the year (down 57 percent), according to the Association of European Businesses lobby group. Last year, Seat sales in Russia reached a record level of 3,375 cars, while global sales stood at 355,000.
Auto sales in Russia were down around 10 percent year-on-year in October and 13 percent in the first 10 months of the year. Analysts blame the downturn on the ruble’s decline and consumers’ reluctance to make large purchases.
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