The recession appears to have taken its toll on Russia’s new car market, which almost halved in size over the course of last year.

This is according to new figures from JATO Dynamics, which revealed a 49.8 per cent fall in vehicle sales in 2009 to 1.36 million units.

Russia’s most popular brands, Lada, Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai and Renault, all suffered declines in sales compared to 2008.

JATO Dynamics regional general manager Evangelos Hadjistavrou said the state of the Russian new car market is "very serious" and probably the worst of any major vehicle market.

"The market dropped by over 1.3 million vehicles last year, in contrast to the growth of recent times," he commented.

Mr Hadjistavrou went on to say that, if it was not for action taken by the Russian government, the situation could have been far worse.

Separate JATO Dynamics figures published this month revealed new car sales in central and eastern Europe as a whole declined by almost a third (28.1 per cent).

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