- For several years now, we regularly hear that the Russian market will become the largest in the European car market, ahead of Germany, which has been the largest European market since the 60s.

- Russia is still an emerging car market, although car sales have been substantial since the arrival of the Lada brand in 1970. However, with a large population and a very low motorization rate (250 per 1 000 inhabitants, against more than 500 in Europe), and a continuous enrichment of the middle class, Russia has the potential to become the biggest European car market.

- The German market has been stagnating since 2012, partly because of a declining population and a slowing economy. The market will hardly reach the threshold of 3.3 million passenger cars from 2017 to 2018.

- Unless another case scenario appears, Russia will benefit from growth (in 2014), driven by domestic demand, from exports (including energy) and from the increase in net incomes.

- Taking into account the factors mentioned in this analysis, and despite occasional fluctuations that may impact the German or Russian market Inovev estimates that for the 2017-2018 period , Russia will permanently become the first European car market, ahead of Germany.