Sales of luxury cars in Russia increased by 30.5 percent in the first half of 2010, despite a rise of only 3 percent in the Russian car market as a whole, Russian business daily Kommersant said on Wednesday.
The Russian luxury car dealers Mercury, Musa Motors and Burevestnik Group regret the cautious orders they made for 2010 and say that growth in sales of luxury cars would be higher still, had dealers taken the risk and ordered more cars, the paper said.
Sales of Mercury Automative (part of Mercury holding) increased by 19 percent year-on-year (130 models) in the first half of 2010, CEO Oskar Akhmedov told Kommersant. Mercury's best-selling car was the Bentley (average cost - $311,887). The company sold 80 models in the period, 35 percent more than in the first half of 2009. Sales of Lamborghinis by the company grew from four to seven cars.
Globally only 1179 Bentleys, or 15,7 percent more than in the first half of 2009, were sold and sales of Lamborghinis dropped by 25,7 percent, or 300 cars.
Sales of the famous Rolls-Royce ($ 410,000 - 850,000) have increased in Russia almost threefold from eight in the first half of 2009 to 22 in January-June 2010, Managing Director of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Moscow (part of Musa Motors group) Tatiana Zilina said.
Rolls-Royce sales have seen high growth throughout the world: 970 cars were sold in the first half of 2010, 194.8 percent more than the same period last year.
"The long-awaited Rolls-Royce Ghost (value in Russia - $ 410 thousand) was released last December causing significant demand," Zhilin said.
Aston Martin Moscow (owned by entrepreneurs Andrew Boyko and Andrei Lomakin, who run Russia's largest boat and luxury yacht company Burevestnik Group) sold 19 cars in the first half, or one model more year-on-year, manager Alexandra Falin said.
MOSCOW, July 28 (RIA Novosti)
