Azerbaijan may replace old cars with locally produced ones

/AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan is still decreasing the volume of its car import. As figures show, the country reduced car import by almost 40 percent in the last ten months.

Azerbaijan imported 52,086 vehicles in January-October, while 84,791 units were brought to the country in the same period of 2013, the statistical report of the State Customs Committee said.

Some 47,379 units out of the total volume of imported vehicles were cars and motor vehicles used for transportation. This index stood at 76,956 in January-October 2013.

A slight rise in car’s import was registered in 2013, when Azerbaijan imported a total of 104,385 cars versus 101,255 in 2012. Some 94,879 units out of the total imported vehicles accounted for cars and motor vehicles provided for transport, versus 89,652 units in 2012.

Some 4,125 trucks were imported to the country during the reported period versus 6,408 trucks in the same period last year. The remainder of the imported cars accounted for other vehicles in January-October. Some 7,823 trucks versus 9,433 in 2012 were imported to the country last year.

The decrease of the imported cars is the result of introduction of new ecological standards in Azerbaijan from this April. The standard restricts the import of used cars, which make up a large part of the cars imported to Azerbaijan.

Last year, 1,232,678 vehicles were registered in the country. This year, the number will not change dramatically. However, this situation may facilitate development of car production in the country.

The cars produced in Azerbaijan today have an advantage over the old cars being used in the country which do not correspond to high environmental standards, Elnur Asadov, Executive Director of the Association Union "Property Market Participants", said.

The Euro-4 standard presupposes gradual phase-out of the old cars that are widely used around the country.

However, Azerbaijan has no appropriate legal framework to impose a ban on the use of cars with expired service life, in order to prevent pollution and reduce the number of fatal accidents.

One of the mechanisms here can be utilization of the old cars with paying compensation to its owners. Another option is replacing the old car with a new one of local production on more favorable and preferential terms.

"Cars produced in Azerbaijan, sufficiently meet environmental European standards, which are an advantage over the old cars that we see on the streets of the capital," Asadov said.

With the increase of car production this year (1,840 passenger cars in January-October), in 2013, 424 passenger cars were produced in Azerbaijan, which was 21.8 percent less than the same period in 2012.

Overall, a two-time increase has been recorded in comparison with 2005. In particular, from 2005 to August 2014, Azerbaijan has produced 7,876 cars. Still, the number of vehicles produced in Azerbaijan makes only 0.6 percent of the total number of vehicles in the country.

Today, the state plans to increase this number by a 32.6 percent increase of trucks production by 2018. Thus, 305 units of vehicles will be produced annually instead of 230 units planned for 2014.

The country houses two plants for the production of motor vehicles in Nakhchivan and Ganja.