标题: Brisk Demand for Vehicles in Russia [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 12-27-2012 08:31 标题: Brisk Demand for Vehicles in Russia Andrew E Kramer, That New-Market Smell; Russia's desire for cars grows, and foreign makers take notice. New York Times, Dec 26, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/2 ... russian-market.html
Quote:
"Trickle-down oil wealth and the spread of easily accessible auto financing are lifting sales, which rose by 40 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period a year ago. * * * 'I would put Russia in the same breath as China,' Timothy E Lee, the head of G.M.’s international division, said at a groundbreaking ceremony for a plant in St Petersburg last summer, which will make midprice sedans.
"Over all, Russian sales are now approaching three million cars annually, according to the Association of European Businesses, a group that tracks sales here as part of its efforts to promote trade between Russia and the European Union. Russia is projected to surpass Germany and become the largest car market in Europe in 2014.
"Russians are snatching up foreign-branded cars. * * * International car companies say the best way to benefit from the growth is through investing heavily in Russian manufacturing, elbowing aside local brands. * * * Russians have shown little nostalgia for their own cars. 'I’m glad they’re gone,' said Nikolai Chernyshov, a 34-year-old lawyer, as his family spilled out of a Ford Focus at a shopping center. He has not shed a tear, he said, for the Lada he once drove. 'No matter what effort we put into making them better, they never got any better,' he said. * * * Just this month, the French-Japanese alliance formalized an agreement to buy a controlling stake in Avtovaz[, the maker of Russia’s other main brand, the Lada,] from the Russian government, bringing all of the country’s car industry under foreign management or ownership for the first time in the post-Soviet period.
"There are now 250 cars for every 1,000 people in Russia, which places the country about midway between emerging markets in Asia and developed markets in Europe. By comparison, India has 11 cars for every 1,000 people; China, 49; Germany, 515; and the United States, 643.
Note:
(a)
(i) Nizhny Novgorod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizhny_Novgorod
(with a population of 1,250,615 [in 2010 Russia census] the fifth largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast; From 1932 to 1990, it was known as Gorky, after the writer Maxim Gorky who was born there; Located at the confluence of two rivers: the Volga and the Oka; Its [city's] name literally means Lower Newtown, to distinguish it from the older Veliky Novgorod)
(ii) Veliky Novgorod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veliky_Novgorod
("Novgorod, 'new city,' from Old Russian Nov and Gorod")
(b)
(i) Volga (automobile) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_(automobile)
(Manufacturer GAZ; Production 1956–2010)
(ii) GAZ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAZ
(GAZ or Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (Russia, [located at] Nizhny Novgorod), translated as Gorky Automobile Plant, started in 1932 as NAZ, a cooperation between Ford and the Soviet Union; still making vehicles)
(c)
(i) AvtoVAZ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AvtoVAZ
(formerly known as VAZ: Volzhsky Avtomobilny Zavod; Founded 1966)
(ii) Lada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada
(car; 1970- the present)