OREANDA-NEWS. Automotive market in Russia, which by the results of 2014 occupied the third place among European leaders, became the largest in Europe because of excessive demand for cars in December.

Official results of the sales of cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia for December and the whole 2014 will be announced by the Association of European Businesses tomorrow. According to preliminary estimates of the agency "AUTOSTAT", last month, Russians bought more than 300 million vehicles, including about 280 thousand passenger cars. Thus, our country has overtaken by the volume of car sales Germany, where in December it was sold 229,700 vehicles (+ 6.7%), according to the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA). Third place in the "European championship" was occupied by France, whose car market fell by 4.5% to 200,089 vehicles for the last month, estimated at the French Chamber of Commerce (CCFA). Next the United Kingdom comes with the index of 166198 sold cars (+ 8.7%), says the data of the British Society of Motor Manufacturers and dealers (SMMT). Italy still closes the "top-five" leaders, where, according to the Italian Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ANFIA), it was sold 91,518 cars (+ 2.4%).