For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, an event dedicated to the automobile market was held in Ukraine. The AUTO.RIA team organized the conference for representatives of the auto business in an online format on December 9. One of the eight speakers was Stanislav Buchatskyi, CEO of the Car Market Research Institute, who talked about the hidden potential of the new car market.
The conference began with the welcome of Mila Kurbatova, deputy marketing director for corporate communications at RIA.com. She talked about how AUTO.RIA has been working since February 24 to help the car market not stop. Every month, AUTO.RIA checks about 75,000 cars for involvement in road accidents; 115,000 cars for missing persons; 61,000 for actual mileage. In total, since the beginning of 2022, the company has checked 1 million unique cars by VIN code. And they also introduced a new check — identity verification using the "Diya" service.
The No. 1 service expert in Ukraine, Anastasia Vladychynska, told what to pay attention to when working with clients to give business the opportunity to move forward even now. Vlad Ilyinov, Product Owner of the New Cars department at AUTO.RIA talked about how and why Ukrainians continue to look for new cars during the war in Ukraine. It is interesting that since the liberation of Kyiv Oblast, demand has been growing almost continuously until the moments of shelling of critical infrastructure, when a decrease of -36% was recorded compared to the previous period. The 344% increase in calls for announcements of the sale of electric cars during the fuel crisis was also indicative.
The head of the Institute of Car Market Research, Stanislav Buchatskyi, devoted his report to the analysis of a large amount of automotive data, including from AUTO.RIA. During the war, about 3,500 new cars were bought every month in Ukraine, and this can be considered an excellent result.
Separately, he singled out "almost new" cars up to three years old, which compete most with the new car segment. That is why the market for new cars is actually bigger than it seems and is constantly growing throughout the year. "It does not matter to the buyer of a used car where it appeared on the market: brought from abroad or purchased on the domestic market. The main thing is that it is physically here, and you donʼt have to wait several months for its delivery," says the expert.
The USA became the main country from which "almost new" cars arrive in Ukraine — as much as 66.5% of the total number of such cars arrived from there, and China was in second place with a share of 9%. An important part of the report was advice on how to increase sales and find new growth areas even in such difficult circumstances for the Ukrainian market. Stanislav talked about the links of the chain that can help dealers with the sale of new cars: availability of cars, financial support, moderate prices for insurance, etc.
After that, a discussion panel was held with business representatives about the state of the new car market and its future. Ruslan Sydorenko , Nissan-Ukraine, took part in the discussion; Andrii Chabanov, Stellantis Ukraine ; Ihor Tkachenko, Porsche ; Andriy Khanin, Jaguar Land Rover.
Vasyl Trofymchuk, project manager of AUTO.RIA ʼs new cars department, spoke about business adaptation and resumption of cooperation with partners at the beginning of the war, in March-May: provision of basic packages for car dealerships with a 50% discount; free targeted calls. Thus, 103 car dealerships cooperated with AUTO.RIA in March, and 170 in May. "A difficult period is the time to create something new," the speaker believes. To support car dealerships, the company has supplemented the search for new cars with "almost new". In this way, both the audience and car dealerships that offer used cars are supported in the crisis.
Ukrainian entrepreneur and public figure Valery Pekar explained why Ukraine will definitely win; in which contexts the war continues; what can be considered a victory; and what scenarios await us after the end of the war.
Alisa Averina, Growth Lead at Uklon, spoke about leadership in war conditions. First of all, the speaker believes, it is necessary to continue working and restore business even now. In addition, according to her, it is important to preserve the team and the product. And, of course, donʼt forget about the help of the Armed Forces.
The executive director of CASE Ukraine, Dmytro Boyarchuk, spoke in the language of numbers about the state of Ukraineʼs economy until February 24, about changes in the solvency of Ukrainians and, of course, about the prospects for its future development.
Petro Chornomorets, candidate of biological sciences, teacher of the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, concluded the conference with an explanation of why we strive for something in general, and what is responsible for our motivation at the biological level.
No matter what, everyone continues to do their job, helping our military protect us. And the fact that even during the war there is an opportunity to hold such an event means that the auto business works, pays taxes, saves jobs, which means we are bringing our common Victory closer.
