China is currently playing a key role as a central hub for the supply of Western, Japanese, and Korean cars to Russia, after these brands left the country's market in 2022. As a result of an investigation by Reuters, based on data on car registrations and conversations with market participants, it has been revealed that tens of thousands of cars are entering Russia, circumventing Western sanctions and the commitments of automakers.
The scheme using "used" cars with zero mileage has become the primary method of bypassing the bans. In China, new cars are registered by dealers as sold, after which they are reclassified as used and exported to Russia. This allows intermediaries to avoid the need to obtain permissions from the brand headquarters. According to the agency, by 2025, nearly 50% of the 130,000 sanctioned brand cars sold in Russia, such as Toyota, Mazda, Mercedes, and BMW, were either produced in China or imported through Chinese intermediaries.
Statistics show that last year, Russians purchased about 30,000 Toyota cars, of which 24,000 were assembled in China. The situation is similar with German premium brands: more than 20,000 out of 47,000 registered BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen Group cars in Russia had Chinese origins. Even models that are manufactured only in Europe, such as the Mercedes G-Class, often arrive in Moscow through Chinese trading networks.
Despite global automakers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW claiming strict control and prohibiting supplies to Russia, they acknowledge the difficulty in combating unofficial exports. Experts point out that the oversaturation of the Chinese market makes local dealers interested in selling excess inventory through intermediaries. Meanwhile, authorities in the EU, US, and Japan continue investigations, striving to close loopholes, but have not yet succeeded in completely stopping the flow of "gray" imports through third countries.
