Experts announced an increase in demand for new cars due to a reduction in the Central Bank rate

Demand for new cars in Russia increased by 8.5% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2026. One of the growth factors was the reduction of the Bank of Russia's key interest rate from 17% to 14% per year, which increased the availability of car loans. This was reported to Izvestia on October 15 by Avito Auto experts.

According to the platform, the average price of a new car in the third quarter was 3.5 million rubles. Demand increased by 9.4% in the first nine months, and by 9.1% in September compared to August. In addition to easing monetary conditions, the dynamics were influenced by a seasonal increase in interest in buying cars and discounts from dealers selling last year's cars, said Artyom Khomutinnikov, head of sales at New Cars at Avito.

Among the brands, the demand for Hongqi has grown most noticeably — by 4.5 times. Users of the Tenet platform began to pay attention to cars 3.7 times more often, and to JAC - 2.8 times more often. The top five in terms of dynamics also included Jaecoo (+41.6%) and Omoda (+26.9%).

Lada Granta is the leader in popularity in the model rating with an average cost of 1.1 million rubles. This is followed by Tenet T7 for 2.9 million rubles and Haval Jolion for 2.6 million rubles. The top five also included Exeed RX (4.9 million rubles) and Tenet T4L (2.3 million rubles). The Tenet T7 showed the highest dynamics of demand among the models — interest in it increased by 4.8 times. This is followed by Hongqi HS3 (four times) and Chery Tiggo 9 (2.3 times).

Against the background of growing demand for a number of models, the average prices on the platform have decreased. In particular, Jetour Dashing fell in price by 10.6%, to 2.8 million rubles, Jaecoo J7 — by 6%, to 3.1 million rubles, Lada Largus — by 3.5%, to 1.7 million rubles. The cost of the Chery Tiggo 9 decreased by 2.8%, to 4.4 million rubles, and Lada Iskra — by 2.4%, to 1.5 million rubles.

According to Khomutinnikov, customer behavior is changing: the share of Russians considering new cars and used cars at the same time has increased by about 14 percentage points over the year, to 44%. At the same time, for 26% of buyers, the purchase of a new car was the first such experience.

Regionally, demand grew the most in the Southern Federal District, doubling. In the Siberian region, the indicator increased by 14.3%, in the Central Region — by 12.3%. Among individual regions, the leaders were Krasnodar Krai, where demand increased 3.2 times, Vologda Oblast (+87.2%) and Lipetsk Oblast (+75.6%).

Technology has failed: the sales results of new cars have been adjusted

Analysts recalculated the data on the sale of cars in September

Earlier in the day, it was reported that the active fleet in Russia increased by more than 5% in 2026, showing the most noticeable growth in the last five years. At the same time, the average annual mileage of cars increased for the first time in three years.