In 2021, Ukrainians spent more than 122 billion hryvnias on cars from abroad. Most cars were used, so the actual amount spent can be even greater. Experts from the Automotive Market Research Institute analyzed customs statistics and determined in which months Ukrainians were the most active and which countries earned the most from selling cars to Ukrainians.
How much did Ukrainians spend on cars from abroad
Last year, 84% of all imported cars were used. 107.9 thousand new ones were imported, which is 16% of the total. Used cars were most actively imported in March, May and June, and used cars in October, November and July, when there was a peak of "legalization" of the so-called "europlates".
However, financial dynamics differs significantly from quantitative ones. The "peak" months in terms of spending on cars were not those who are leaders in the number of "fit". This is easy to explain: most of the so-called "europlates", which were issued en masse during June-November, were older cars, and therefore much cheaper than other categories of imports. Thus, Ukrainians spent the most money on cars from abroad in March — 11.8 billion hryvnias. They also spent money more actively than in other periods between April and July.
In total, in 2021, Ukrainians spent 58.1 billion hryvnias on new cars from abroad and 60.9 billion on used ones. Thus, the financial volume of imports was divided by almost half. However, the amount actually paid for imported used cars may be even higher, experts from the Automotive Market Research Institute emphasize.
"Today in Ukraine we see a trend of massive understatement of customs value when importing used cars from abroad to reduce mandatory payments. The prices indicated in the customs declarations do not correspond to the market ones. In fact, Ukrainians pay more for cars than is recorded in official customs statistics", said Stanislav Buchatsky, head of the Automotive Market Research Institute.
Experts estimate the real volume of the import market to be 20-40% higher than the official one, in the range of 73-84 billion hryvnias per year.
Which countries have earned the most by selling cars to Ukrainians
Turkey tops the list of countries that have earned the most from sales of new cars. Ukrainians spent UAH 8 billion on cars exported from this country. In second place — Poland (7 billion hryvnia), and third place went to Hungary (5.2 billion). It should be noted that in 25 thousand cars (worth 14.2 billion hryvnias) the country of export is not specified in customs statistics.
The United States earned the most from the export of used cars — in 2021, Ukrainians bought used cars there for 32.3 billion hryvnias. The second in the ranking is Poland, from which Ukrainians brought cars with a mileage of 7.4 billion hryvnias. In third place was Germany, with a figure of 4.7 billion hryvnia.
In general, the ranking of countries by the total value of exported used cars almost completely repeats the top countries in terms of imports.
In which countries are the most expensive and cheapest cars
The most expensive new cars in 2021 were cars exported from the UK. Their average customs value is fixed at UAH 2.93 million. Cars imported from Germany (average cost UAH 2 million) and Italy (UAH 1.77 million) were also expensive.
The cheapest new cars imported to Ukraine last year were cars imported from Mexico (UAH 189,000), Uzbekistan (UAH 233,000) and India (UAH 277,000).
Used cars with the highest average customs value were exported from China (UAH 507,000). The second in the list of Kuwait with the average customs value of used cars at 435 thousand hryvnias, and the third — Russia (average value of 403 thousand hryvnias). By the way, the import of cars originating (ie manufactured) in Russia has been banned since 2019. But cars made in other countries can be imported, even if they are exported from Russia. According to the statistics of the State Customs Service, there were 81 in 2021.
The cheapest used cars were in Panama (average customs value UAH 33.7 thousand), Slovenia (UAH 41.5 thousand) and Finland (UAH 42.7 thousand). Interestingly, the list includes other exotic countries such as Cyprus, Malta, Iceland and even Jordan and Libya. Given the peculiarities of such car markets, this is more about the economic activities of companies registered there than about buying cars from these countries, say experts from the Automotive Market Research Institute.
The average customs value of used cars in the most popular countries for the export of vehicles to Ukraine in 2021 was:
- USA — UAH 204.4 thousand
- Poland — 122.4 thousand UAH
- Germany — UAH 75.6 thousand
Financial indicators of imports in 2021 are a record for the growing and developing Ukrainian automotive market. In order to effectively develop the car business in a competitive environment, order analytics from experts from the Automotive Market Research Institute. Write to us at [email protected] !
