Another Crisis in the Domestic Auto Industry: Car Production Plunges in Russia

In the first five months of 2025, Russian car factories produced 281,000 passenger cars. This is 4% more than in the same period last year. However, in May, production volume decreased by 18.5% year-on-year and by 49.8% compared to April, according to Rosstat data.

One of the reasons for this sharp decline may be the spring corporate holiday of the largest Russian automaker, AvtoVAZ, which lasted from May 1 to May 11. The company resumed production of the training version of Lada Granta on May 16, and on May 21, the anniversary 50,000th Lada Largus rolled off the assembly line of the Lada Izhevsk plant.

The production of commercial vehicles for January-May amounted to 58.8 thousand units, which is 20.1% less than last year. In May, truck production fell by 32% year-on-year, amounting to 8.9 thousand units, and compared to April, the fall was 31.6%.

At the end of May, the Sollers Alabuga plant in Tatarstan began production of a new line of light commercial vehicles, Sollers SF5, which became the first domestic car of this class with an automatic transmission.

The production of buses weighing more than 5 tons in the first five months of 2025 decreased by 39.6%, amounting to 3.8 thousand units. In May, production decreased by 36.9% year-on-year, and compared to April - by 15.8% (up to 718 units). Also, in January - May, 6.6 thousand buses weighing no more than 5 tons were produced, which is 19.3% lower than in the same period of 2024. In May, the production of such buses fell by 45.1% year-on-year and by 52.3% compared to April, amounting to 900 units.

Earlier www1.ru reported that AvtoVAZ may reduce car production by 20% in 2025.

Read related materials:

20 billion rubles will be spent on the development of Lada B-Cross

Clearance of at least 194 cm: new details about the latest Lada B-Cross crossover

Approximate release date of Lada B-Cross named