By KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Primary registrations of used passenger cars imported into Ukraine from abroad in November 2023 increased by 46% year-over-year, to 21,700 units, which is also 3% more than in October of 2023, Ukrautoprom association said on its Telegram channel.
“Thus, the addition of used cars to the country’s vehicle fleet in November was the largest in the last 16 months,” the association said.
According to the association, the largest share in the segment of imported used foreign cars in November belonged to gasoline cars was 44% (same as in October), followed by diesel cars of 31% (no changes), electric cars of 16% (17%), cars with LPG of 6% (5%) and hybrids, as a month earlier some 3%.
The top five remained the same: Volkswagen Golf (1,511 units), Renault Megane (1,261 units), Skoda Octavia (894 units), Volkswagen Passat (728 units) and Nissan Leaf (515 units).
The top ten of this market in November also included Volkswagen Tiguan some 466 units, Audi A4 some 421 units, Nissan Qashqai some 419 units, Ford Focus some 403 units, Audi Q5 some 399 units.
The average age of used cars that switched to Ukrainian license plates in November is nine years.
In total, in January-November 2023, some 191,000 used passenger cars imported from abroad were first registered in Ukraine, which is 3.5 times more than sales of new cars for the same period of the previous year.
In turn, the information and analytical group Auto-Consulting, analyzing the used car market in Ukraine (used import and domestic resale), notes that additional problems in November were added due to the blocking of the Polish-Ukrainian border, which actually paralyzed the movement of goods by motor transport, including car transporters.
“The blockage has already hit operators of the used market the most painfully. There is already a queue of applications for the supply of cars to Ukraine, which carriers simply cannot fulfil. The cheapest way to enter the country is transportation by car carriers, but they have been blocked at the Polish border for three weeks now,” the group said in the website.
Experts add that smaller car transporters (a carriage with a trailer) have started to operate, but there is also a long queue for them, and there are few of them in circulation.
“Therefore, some operators remembered the old days and began to ferry cars under their own power,” according to the report.
Taking into account these factors, leading to an increase in transportation costs and a shortage of cars, experts predict the possibility of an increase in prices for used cars in December.
“In the autumn months, Ukraine this year consumed 21,000 to 23,000 imported used cars. Another 67,000 to 70,000 cars were bought on the domestic market. In November, the number of transactions with imported second-hand cars increased slightly, to about 24,000 cars, but most of them were imported even before the blocking [of the Ukrainian-Polish border],” Auto-Consulting analysts said.
