Who could blame Russian consumers for being skittish about purchasing vehicles that can’t handle the cold?
U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariffs have sparked controversy, to say the least. The president recently put a whopping 145% tariff on the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and thus far, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hasn’t blinked. Instead, Beijing has engaged in tat-for-tat retaliation and begun seeking alternate markets in places like Russia. This should not be surprising in light of the ever-increasing military and political coziness between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China.
But is that politico-military bonhomie necessarily translating into a financial windfall for China’s global trade ambitions? Some recent reports from Russian media are casting doubt upon the viability of this venture.
Do Russians Want to Buy Chinese Cars?
As noted by Sakina Nuriyeva in an article for the Moscow-based news site Gazeta.Ru (literally “Gazette”), which draws upon Russian news agency TASS for information:
“From January to March 2025, 213 car dealerships of Chinese brands closed in Russia, which is three times more compared to the same period last year (67 salons) … It is noted that unlike 2023 and 2024, in the first quarter of this year, Chinese salons began to massively lose investors. Most car dealerships were closed by manufacturers of the brands Bestune, Kaiyi and DFM. The top 10 brands in terms of the number of those that stopped working for the first time included Geely, Jaecoo, Jetour and LiAuto.”
Nuriyeva also notes that in that same three-month reporting period, there were 274 closures in the Russian automotive market as a whole. So, those 213 Chinese closures comprise 77.7 percent of the total number of closures in the industry.
Is There a Problem With China’s Cars?
A big part of the problem for Chinese auto sales in Russia is that they’re running afoul of the infamous Russian winter, the same factor that historically doomed more than one invading army’s attempt to conquer Russia militarily (e.g., Napoleon Bonaparte’s France in the early nineteenth century and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in the twentieth).
For further detail on this malady, we turn to another Gazeta.ru report, this one penned by Alexey Morozov back on November 20, 2024, whose title roughly translates to “Russians named cars problematic for winter.” Morozov quotes Alexander Strelnikov, founder of the Russian-Chinese transport company RusTransChina:
“Chinese cars such as Geely and Haval often face a number of ‘winter problems’. Many owners complain about the poor operation of the heater and the long warm-up of the interior. For example, Geely Tugella has cases when the heated seats cannot cope with the cold, and the rear of the cabin remains cold.”
Morozov adds that another Geely model, the Monjaro, is plagued with the malady of door handles sticking during low temperatures. Meanwhile, the touchscreens of Haval cars are proving unreliable in frosts.
Given the fact that Russian winters last from November to March, with temperatures averaging between -3ºC to -9ºC (26.6ºF to 15.8º F, with occasional dips as low as -42ºC (-43.6º F), who could blame Russian consumers for being skittish about purchasing vehicles that aren’t going to perform reliably five months out of the year?
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: Shutterstock
