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Porsche Races Ahead in Russian Car Market

© Sputnik / Grigory Sysoev / Go to the mediabankA Porsche 918 Spyder at the Moscow International Car Exhibition 2014
A Porsche 918 Spyder at the Moscow International Car Exhibition 2014 - Sputnik International
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Despite a general fall in demand in the Russian car market, sales of luxury German cars such as Mercedes and Porsche increased last year.

Laura car dealership in Sochi - Sputnik International
Russia
Car Sales in Russia to Drop by Up to 35% in 2015 - Forecast
Manufacturers of top-end cars such as Audi, Mercedes and Porsche are managing to buck the falling demand for cars in Russia, and even recorded an increase in sales last year, despite a 10.3% year on year fall in sales to 2.49 million vehicles, according to figures from the Association of European Businesses [AEB].

The AEB likewise predicts the fall in demand to gather pace in 2015, with the market shrinking by another 24% to 1.89 million vehicles sold. However, despite what AEB chairman Joerg Schreiber called a "year of disappointments for the car industry," manufacturers of high-end German cars told Deutsche Welle they had even recorded a growth in sales.

According to DW, last year Mercedes increased its sales by nearly 14 percent, and Audi by almost 1 percent. Achim Saurer, the head of Audi in Russia told the agency the firm had no plans to leave the Russian market. "Russia is a country with a massive number of expensive cars on the streets. You are unlikely to see so many in Germany or any other European country," explained Saurer. "Russia leads sales among all European countries of our flagship luxury sedan, the Audi A8. Furthermore, demand for the A8 rose last year by ten percent."

A representative from car dealership Rolf echoed the positive outlook for luxury car sales: "The demand for executive sedans is absolutely stable," Svetlana Branitskaya told DW. "Advance orders for them have even risen, for the Porsche Cayenne for example- by ten percent."

A Google self-driving car goes on a test drive near the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. While these cars promise to be much safer, accidents will be inevitable. How those cars should react when faced with a series of bad, perhaps deadly, options is a field even less developed than the technology itself. - Sputnik International
Apple Looking to Build Self-Driving Car, Too
Premium cars had a 12.1 percent share of the market in 2014, according to data from the automotive market research agency Autostat, a proportion which can be expected to rise this year. Last week the agency released figures for second hand car sales in January, according to which ten higher-end brands had managed to record a year on year increase in sales. Among the winners were Lifan with a 35 percent increase in sales, and Porsche with 26.5 percent. Jeep, Lexus, Range Rover and Infinity all announced a rise of more than ten percent.

Other manufacturers announced less auspicious sales figures, which comprised 331,500 vehicles overall, down 9.3 percent year on year for the segment. Lada, the traditional leader in the used car market, saw sales of its used cars fall by 15.9 percent to 95,600 vehicles.

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