Since the beginning of the year, Ukrainians have sold cars worth $15.4 billion on the Internet. Of these, $11.3 billion is from the start of a full-scale war. Thus, today the "money" volume of the secondary car market is about $2 billion per month. Based on the data of the aggregator Automoto.ua , which collects the announcements of the sale of ALL cars from 100 car sales sites in Ukraine, the experts of the Institute of Car Market Research financially compared the offer in the regions and determined how the war affected it.
Financial dynamics of the car market
The monthly change in the total value of cars sold by Ukrainians on the Internet fully corresponds to the quantitative indicators: the more ads were published, the higher the total value of all cars for sale, and vice versa.
In "pre-war" January, Ukrainians offered for sale used cars with a total value of $2.3 billion.
The fewest cars were recorded for sale after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine: in March. At the same time, the lowest financial indicator of the market volume in 2022 was recorded: $1.1 billion. In April, the Ukrainian car market began to recover: the sale of passenger cars was already $1.7 billion.
Ukrainians sold the most cars on the Internet in May : the total value of passenger cars amounted to $2.5 billion. The record figure was the result of the so-called "zero customs clearance": first, "freshly driven" cars entered the market; secondly, Ukrainians sold old cars, to replace which they brought a passenger car from abroad.
In June, the total value of cars in sales decreased to $2 billion, in July it increased to $2.3 billion, and in August it fell again to $1.8 billion. Along with this, the Institute of Car Market Research recorded a drop in the average price of a used car in Ukraine and a decrease in the price of 7 of the 10 most popular models. These are the consequences of the economic crisis caused by the war.
What is happening in the regions
According to the results of the first 8 months of the difficult year 2022, if measured in the total value of cars, the largest offer is in the Kyiv region and Kyiv : a total of $3.6 billion. This is 23.1% of the total value of all cars published on classifieds sites during this period. The capital region has always taken the lead in car sales, so such research results were not a surprise. Although it is worth noting that a sale offer is not necessarily a purchase. Therefore, it can also be about the need for money of those who sell cars, under the pressure of circumstances.
Lviv region took the second place. There, the total cost of passenger cars amounted to $1.5 billion. This indicator made it possible to occupy almost 10% of the volume of the financial market.
The Dnipropetrovsk region is on the third step: there, since the beginning of the year, cars have been offered for sale for $1.2 billion, which is 7.5% of the total amount. Odesa ( $1.1 billion, 7.4% ) and Ivano-Frankivsk ( $727 million, 4.7% ) oblasts also entered the top 5.
Experts recorded the lowest total value of passenger cars among the sales announcements in the regions affected by the war. Thus, the last 24th place was taken by Luhansk region ( 88 million, 0.6% ); Kherson Oblast took 23rd place ( 108 million, 0.7% ); Chernihiv Oblast took the 22nd place ( 188 million, 1.2% ). They are followed by Donetsk (21st place, 194 million, 1.3% ) and Mykolaivsk (20th place, 199 million, 1.3% ) regions.
It is worth noting that quantitative shares do not always coincide with financial ones. So, ads from Kyiv and the region in the studied period make up 16.5% of the total number, but the cars from these ads are worth significantly more in total: 23.1% of the value of all cars on sale during January-August 2022. This means that this region sells more expensive cars compared to other regions. The same situation is noticeable in two more regions: Lviv (9.4% versus 9.9%) and Odesa (6.4% versus 7.4%).
The indicators in Zakarpattia Oblast are the same (3.5% in both cases), on the other hand, in the rest of the regions, the quantitative shares are larger than the financial ones, that is, cheaper cars are sold there compared to others.
What changed with the beginning of the great war?
The picture of the Ukrainian car market has changed significantly after the full-scale invasion of Russia. The share of regions in the structure of sales of passenger cars on the Internet has changed significantly — both quantitatively and financially. If we compare the shares of regions in the total value of cars on sale in January and August, the Lviv region added the most: +26.2%.
The financial share of the Khmelnytsky region increased significantly ( +20.1% ). Kyiv and Kyiv region added +15.8%, and the total value of cars in the Vinnytsia region increased by +15.1%. Experts estimate that the cars sold in Odesa region are worth more — by +9% more.
The financial share also increased in some other areas:
- Zakarpattia — +7.9%
- Cherkasy — +7.1%
- Kirovohradsk — +6.7%
- Poltava — +6.5%
- Dnipropetrovsk — +6.1%
- Chernivtsi — +5.6%
- Ternopil — +4.3%
The situation remained more or less stable in Rivne (+2.0%), Zhytomyr (+1.1%), Ivano-Frankivsk (-0.8%) and Volyn regions (-1.1%).
Instead, the car market "suffered" the most financially in the Kherson region : there the total cost of cars for sale decreased by as much as -84.8%. In second place from the bottom are cars sold in the Donetsk region: their total value is -70.6% lower than in January. The financial share of Kharkiv Oblast decreased by half ( -50.5% ).
Experts also noted a significant drop in the following areas:
- Sumy — -11.8%
- Chernihivska — -12.5%
- Zaporozhye — -29.6%
- Luhansk — -46.6%
- Mykolaivska — -47.0%
Conclusions
Despite the war, the automotive market of Ukraine is alive and gradually recovering. However, due to the economic crisis in August, the total value of cars that Ukrainians offer for sale on the Internet decreased.
Predictably , those regions, parts of whose territories are temporarily occupied, or on whose territory hostilities were directly fought, suffered the most financial damage to the car market. Instead, the regions that can be considered safer "added" the most to the total cost of cars.
The exception was Kyiv region, which after de-occupation quickly resumed activity in car sales, exceeded the "pre-war" indicators and remained the market leader. Also, despite the proximity to the front line, the financial share of the Dnipropetrovsk region increased, which allowed it to take the third place in the ranking by the total cost of cars. Odeshchyna also showed good performance: it increased its financial share in the market and ended up in the fourth position of the list.
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