At the invitation of President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, President Vladimir Putin The Russian Federation will pay a state visit to the People's Republic of China from May 19 to 20, 2026. The two sides issued a joint statement on further strengthening comprehensive strategic coordination and deepening good-neighborly and friendly cooperation. The automobile industry has been mentioned many times as a model of cooperation between the two countries. The statement clearly stated that cooperation in the automobile field will be further deepened, which will inject strong impetus into China automobile companies 'deep exploration of the Russian market and bring new development opportunities.

1. Cooperation between China and Russia in the automobile industry

1. Automobile trade situation

In recent years, China's automobile exports to Russia have shown obvious fluctuations. After the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, China's automobile exports to Russia showed explosive growth. In 2023 and 2024, Russia will remain the largest automobile export market in China for two consecutive years. In 2024, exports will increase by 27.4% year-on-year to 1.158 million units, accounting for 20% of the total automobile exports that year. In 2025, affected by factors such as Russia's tightening policies, exports plunged 49.9% year-on-year to 579,000 units. However, the structure showed positive changes, with new energy vehicles exported 50,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 109.4%. Entering 2026, exports will pick up rapidly: from January to April, automobile exports were 270,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 105.2%; of which, new energy vehicles were exported 19,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 186.1%.

2. Local development of China brand automobiles

Due to the sanctions imposed by the United States and the West on Russia, European, American, Japanese and Korean auto companies have successively withdrawn from the Russian auto market. This structural gap provides important strategic opportunities for China auto companies. From 2020 to 2024, the share of China brand cars in the new car market in Russia will increase from about 4% to nearly 60%. In 2025, the total sales volume of China brand cars in Russia will be 850,000 units. Although it dropped by nearly 30% year-on-year, its market share is still as high as 57.2%. Chery is the highest-selling car company in China, with sales of 246,000 units in 2025; Great Wall and Geely ranked second and third respectively, with sales of 198,000 units and 179,000 units respectively.

3. The local development of China brand cars faces problems

In recent years, the number of exports to Russia has exploded, and there are also some exports of products from non-car companies. Due to differences in geographical, climatic conditions, some products may experience problems such as corrosion and rust, poor key functions of engines and electronic components, and reliability and durability. Individual companies have insufficient experience in overseas development, and there will be situations where local regulations and certification requirements are not implemented in place. Coupled with the lagging construction of after-sales channels, some development shortcomings are exposed.

2. The China-Russia Joint Statement brings opportunities to the development of China automobiles in Russia

1. Upgrading the industrial cooperation strategy and clarifying the automobile industry as the priority development direction

The joint statement clearly listed the automobile industry as a key area of bilateral cooperation, proposing that "the two sides will vigorously develop cooperation in the fields of automobile, shipbuilding, civil aviation and other fields and enhance the level of cooperation, based on the principle of inclusiveness, and taking into account their respective domestic laws and national development priorities, and continue to expand cooperation in digital economy, artificial intelligence and other information and communication technologies, cross-border e-commerce and other fields." This statement marks the core strategic position of the automobile industry in bilateral cooperation and provides a solid policy endorsement and long-term expectation for the development of China automobile companies in the Russian market. The highest political will of the two countries has been injected into cooperation in the automobile industry. This strategic upgrade at the decision-making level will help break through policy bottlenecks, stabilize market expectations, and expand the depth of cooperation.

2. Mutual recognition of standards and technical collaboration help China automobiles deeply cultivate in Russia

The statement stated that "both sides recognize the important role of standardization cooperation in promoting technological progress and trade facilitation between the two countries, and will further deepen standardization cooperation in key areas, including promoting mutual recognition of standards in automotive and other fields, and establishing a long-term information exchange and cooperation mechanism in the field of conformity assessment." With the gradual implementation of relevant arrangements and mechanisms, it is expected to solve the technical standard barriers and duplicate certification problems for China automobiles to enter the Russian market, and significantly reduce corporate compliance costs. At the same time, mutual recognition of standards is also expected to provide institutional support for China car companies to promote the implementation of intelligent network connectivity technology in Russia and realize the localization and adaptation of new energy models, accelerate the leap from "product going to sea" to "technology going to sea" and "brand going to sea", and help China cars achieve deeper localized development in the Russian market.

3. The logistics channels have been comprehensively upgraded, and the efficiency of automobile export transportation has been greatly improved

It announced that it will launch a number of major measures in the field of transportation and logistics. The two sides proposed to "take multiple measures to ensure the smooth flow of China-Russia border ports, actively carry out smart port cooperation, continue to accelerate the modernization of port infrastructure, and simultaneously improve the efficiency of two-way customs clearance at ports." In terms of railway transportation, both sides are willing to "expand the import, export and transit railway freight volume of third countries","simultaneously strengthen the construction of railway border station infrastructure and rear channels, and build a smooth, stable, sustainable and healthy development railway logistics channel." These measures will significantly reduce the cross-border logistics costs of complete vehicles and parts of China, shorten the delivery cycle, especially provide strong support for transit transportation in Central Asia and Europe, and enable the supply chain response speed and cost competitiveness of China automobiles in the Russian market to be qualitatively improved.

3. Countermeasures and suggestions

1. Grasp the strategic upgrade window and deepen the Russian market with diversified models

Make full use of the policy dividends brought by the joint statement listing the automobile industry as a priority direction for cooperation, actively align with Russia's national development priorities, explore cooperation with Russia in emerging fields such as new energy vehicles and smart driving, and deeply embed corporate development into Russia's automobile industry revitalization strategy exchanges industrial symbiosis in exchange for long-term market space. At the same time, a diversified model needs to be built to spread risks. Deepen KD assembly and effectively reduce the cost pressure caused by the step-by-step increase in import scrapping taxes by establishing regional production bases that meet Russia's requirements; promote the coordinated development of various models such as official vehicle export, joint venture assembly and technical authorization, and create a more resilient localized industrial system.

2. Promote mutual recognition of standards and technology export, and enhance brand premium capabilities

Faced with the long-term pain point of technical standard barriers, China automobile companies can join forces with industry associations and professional institutions to actively connect with the Chinese and Russian standardization authorities to promote the first inclusion of advantageous areas such as intelligent connected vehicles, new energy vehicle safety and charging interfaces in the mutual recognition list. In addition, industry leaders can actively participate in the revision of Russian technical regulations. This move will help reduce the cost of repeated vehicle certification, shorten the launch cycle of new models, and accelerate the process of going to sea.

3. Make good use of logistics upgrade policies to build an efficient and flexible supply chain system

Opportunities such as the construction of China-Russia smart ports and the expansion of railway freight transportation should be seized to build a diversified and resilient cross-border transportation network. Optimize multimodal transport solutions for complete vehicles and parts and reduce reliance on a single transportation method. At the same time, the single window interconnection mechanism is used to improve customs clearance efficiency, and the new port on Heixiazi Island is used to shorten the delivery cycle in the Far East. In addition, parts storage centers should be deployed in Russia's main sales areas to improve after-sales response speed and support brand reputation with supply chain resilience. By transforming logistics efficiency advantages into service competitiveness in the end market, we will achieve a strategic transformation from scale expansion to quality deepening.

4. Go to sea in an orderly manner and strengthen after-sales service guarantee capabilities

We will not fight unprepared battles, strengthen research capabilities in market, compliance and other aspects, and conduct business in Russia in an orderly manner while respecting local regulations. Strengthen the localized development of automobile products. In response to the special environment and special requirements of key overseas markets such as Russia, enterprises should strengthen local adaptive development and verification to improve the quality of export products. Continue to improve the level of overseas after-sales services and strengthen the traceability capabilities of the entire process of export vehicles from production, sales to after-sales service by establishing a regular spot check and review mechanism.

Source: China Automotive Strategy and Policy Research Center

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