Top end car sales in Russia surge 80%

Premium-class car sales in Russia surged 79 percent year on year in 2011 to 520,000 vehicles, Avtostat statistics agency reported on Thursday, quoting data from auditer PricewaterhouseCoopers. Premium-class cars accounted for 21 percent of all car sales in Russia. A total of $30 billion worth of premium-class cars were sold in Russia last year, or about half the Russian car market by value. The best premium-class buys were Toyota RAV4 off-road vehicles (23,880 cars sold, up 17.8 percent) and Nissan X-Trail (22,689 cars, up 40.4 percent). The demand for cars costing more than $100,000 increased 110 percent year on year in 2011 and is expected to grow further, PwC analysts said.