What is interesting about the year 2014 for connoisseurs of the car market? First of all, the so-called "draconian" tax rates on imports were in effect at that time, when the amount of customs clearance could be several times higher than the cost of the car itself abroad, that is, imports as such barely existed. In total, in 2014, about 9,000 used cars were "driven", which is less than what now arrives in Ukraine in 2 weeks. The current rate of import is more than 20,000 cars per month.
There were 2 years left before the adoption of the first law, popularly called "3251" (according to its registration number still in project status) or "Horvatʼs law". It is this document that will later become a "window to Europe", for the first time in a decade, giving an ordinary motorist the opportunity to bring and clear customs at reasonable tax rates for a passenger car. Yes, then individual lobbyists (more precisely, the owners of specific car businesses) under the guise of false and already outdated slogans about "supporting the national manufacturer" tried to stop this initiative, added various legal restrictions, and yet the "iron curtain", which for years closed the Ukrainian car market from the world, was destroyed. And for the first time in practice, it was proven that the reduction of taxes on the import of transport will result in an increase in revenues to the state budget. It is the state one, and not in the cash registers of privileged LLCs or JSCs.
Next, there will be the "Euroblah" movement, which will become the driving force for the next changes to the rules of the game, which will be rewritten by the efforts of public activists, individual peopleʼs deputies and government officials, the principles of taxation will be revised once again, and the economy standards for imported used cars will be shifted to Euro-2. These rules are still in effect today, based on the so-called "committee projects" of the time. And they operate quite successfully, as evidenced by the statistics of imports and revenues to the state treasury.
The import segment was also distinguished by the fact that few people mentioned electric cars — because there was nothing to talk about: the choice was scarce, and the prices were sky-high. And there were no benefits for their import. As a result, only about 50 "electric cars" arrived in 2014, which amounted to a "global" share of as much as 0.4%. For comparison, there are currently 17% of new arrivals (with mileage) of BEV passenger cars, which is more than "hybrid" and "gas" cars combined, i.e. equipped with HBO.
Of course, all these numbers and percentages are not as interesting as the list of the most popular models of the time, which can be compared to the current rating of "newbies". On the following slide, there are the Top 10 imported used cars of 2014 and 2024:
The 2014 list is headed by the Renault Megane, which even then had a small diesel engine, which allowed it to be imported with relatively lower taxes. The second place in the Smart is due to the fact that its engine had a working volume of less than 1000 cm3, so the tax rates for it were small. There are also many commercial cars on the list, for example, the third on the list is the Renault Kangoo van. These cars fall into the category of cars by belonging to category "B" in the driverʼs license. And although on January 1, 2014, a "light" excise duty was introduced for the conversion of trucks (which before that could be imported without excise duty), nevertheless, as statistics show, they were still imported quite intensively (for the total volumes at that time).
At the same time, it is worth noting that this list does not fully reflect the actual demand: firstly, very little was imported, and secondly, cars were mostly “driven in” either completely low-volume cars (like Smart), or to the order of those buyers who were ready to OVERPAY for a "freshly driven" model, because it was simply not possible to buy it in Ukraine.
The rating of the then domestic market, which for decades was not replenished with "freshly driven" high-quality cars of European, Korean or Japanese production, instead, several businesses poured various types of "Lanos" into it, as well as VAZs, GAZs and other obsolete cheap junk, occasionally translated by the same cheap products of the Chinese auto industry. We will certainly cover this topic in our next publications.
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In the modern list, at least among the top ten, there are no longer "buses" and vans, several crossovers have appeared, and even two and a half electric cars. More precisely, two models that are exclusively electric and the Volkswagen Golf, some of which come in the e-Golf version, that is, on battery power, and they are included in the total volume of "Golfs".
There are still some cars that come entirely (Nissan Rogue) or partially (VW Passat, VW Tiguan, Audi Q5, Tesla Model 3) from the USA, most often from insurance auctions there. At that time, such a trend actually did not exist — unless some wealthy motorists ordered some exotic (and far from budget) cars like Lincoln or Cadillac for our market.
Despite the fact that a lot of changes have taken place in 10 years, both lists include such models as Renault Megane and Scenic (then some of these newly arrived minivans could be called Megane Scenic), and the "peopleʼs favorite" Volkswagen Passat, where would you go without it.
But what the list of models in 2034 will look like is difficult to say. Too many changes await our market, legislation and automotive industry. There will probably be even more versions with electric or similar types of power — hydrogen or similar. The presence of several models with the logos of Chinese car factories is not excluded — now there are already many of them in the rating of new cars. By body type, crossovers will most likely prevail, the popularity of which is steadily growing. Well, and, probably, since it is about the Ukrainian car market, the Volkswagen Passat will remain in the top ten. Because where without him.
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