The government has officially increased the budget of the preferential car loan program to 22.5 billion rubles. and approved new rules for access to such state support. For example, families with at least one child, health workers and those who give the car for a trade-in on the down payment now have the right to a discount of 10–25% of the price of the car. You can take a soft loan only for a car no more than 1.5 million rubles, localized in the Russian Federation. Although formally the program now extends to electric cars, it is actually impossible to purchase them because of the localization requirement, since such cars are not manufactured in Russia.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin approved the amendments to the “First Car” and “Family Car” preferential car loan programs, as follows from Decree No. 907 of June 23. The government’s website notes that the program budget this year will be 22.5 billion rubles.
As part of preferential car loans, the buyer is entitled to a 10% discount on the cost of the car, but for the Far East its size is 25%. Now the maximum discount can also be obtained when buying an electric car. At the same time, there remains a requirement for the localization of cars purchased on credit in Russia – they must gain 1.4 thousand points under the 719th decree.
Since electric cars in Russia are not produced at all, in practice it is impossible to buy them with a soft loan.
New rules reinforce the opportunity to buy a car with it worth up to 1.5 million rubles. Price limit of 1 million rubles. acted in 2015, after which the cost steadily increased until 2019, when it was again reduced from 1.45 million to 1 million rubles. In fact, this fact, coupled with additional requirements for the level of localization of cars, significantly limited the list of cars covered by the preferential car loan program – the main financing was focused on Lada. From foreign cars, only Renault, two Hyundai models (Creta, Solaris), as well as one model Volkswagen (Polo), Skoda (Rapid) and Kia (Rio), fall into the program.
At the same time, with an increase in value, the range of brands acquired through preferential car loans did not increase.
Under the new rules, access to preferential car loans was given to families raising at least one child (previously two children), employees of medical institutions, as well as those who handed over the old car for a trade-in in payment of the initial payment.
Only a car older than six years old, which was owned by the borrower for at least a year, can be handed over to the trade-in, the resolution says.
In May, in the first month of easing restrictions amid the coronavirus, according to the United Credit Bureau (OKB; it also has data from Sberbank), citizens took 28.2 thousand car loans worth 22.4 billion rubles. The number and volume of loans issued compared with April more than doubled.
In practice, both the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the concerns participating in the programs informed about the launch of new access rules even before their approval – from the beginning of June. In addition, the document itself says that the new maximum cost of a car in preferential car loans (1.5 million rubles) applies to cars purchased from March 1, 2020.
In Russia, there is a short-term surge in demand for cars after an almost two-month downtime of the dealer network. Against this background, AvtoVAZ postponed the transition to a shorter work week until the end of summer. The manufacturers and dealers interviewed by Kommersant agree that sales have grown compared with the failed April-May indicators, but this is due to temporary factors in deferred demand and increased government support. The real picture will be clear only in September. So far, the industry believes that by the end of the year the market will fall by 30%, with some players assessing this scenario as optimistic.
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