It may come as a surprise to literally no one, but new car sales in Russia are absolutely in the trash right now. Sales in August of this year reportedly fell 62.4 percent compared to last year, according to Reuters.
That wasn't even the worst month on record. The Association of European Businesses (AEB) says auto sales dropped 74.9 percent in July of 2022 compared to July of last year. The organization says 41,698 vehicles were sold in August. That's down from over 110,000 vehicles sold during the same time last year.
Factories throughout the country have suspended production or furloughed workers due to a shortage of just about everything needed to build cars, along with a mass exodus of non-Russian automakers leaving that nation's market.
As you may have imagined, this is a self-inflicted wound for Russia. Most, if not all of these issues were spurred on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February of this year. Since then, Russia's auto industry, which Reuters says is heavily reliant on foreign investment, has faced all sorts of trouble.
Among some of the issues have been disruptions to supply chains and parts suppliers as well as sanctions imposed by Western countries meant to punish Russia for its invasion.
That invasion has sent shockwaves throughout the world of manufacturing -especially car manufacturing. Fuel prices have also skyrocketed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, only now beginning to get back to some semblance of normalcy (sort of).