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."
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.
