Uzbekistan’s Car Market Falls by 20% as Cobalt Sales Soar by 32% in 1Q25

Uzbekistan’s car market posted a sharp decline in the first quarter of 2025 losing 19.7% in sales amid tightened non-tariff restrictions and falling consumer demand, according to an analysis by Avtostat.

Industry experts reported that the market contracted by 12% in January, 21.2% in February and 26.4% in March. This marked the first serious downturn after two years of steady growth during which sales repeatedly broke records. In 2024, 423,600 vehicles were sold in total.

Cobalt Leads the Market

Chevrolet maintained its market leadership with a 67% share despite a 15.3% drop in sales. Daewoo ranked second with a 15.3% share, down by 16.6%. Kia secured third place and was the only top brand to record growth, increasing sales by 40.8%.

Among the top five brands, Kia (+40.8%) and BYD (+27.3%) demonstrated the strongest momentum. Chery (-50.5%) and Daewoo (-16.6%) recorded the weakest performance.

In the model ranking, Chevrolet Cobalt remained the leader with a 32.5% increase in sales, followed by the Daewoo Damas which saw a decline of 16.6%.

Electric Vehicles Hit Barriers

The electric vehicle segment, which saw explosive growth of 1169.9% in 2023, collapsed by 50.9% at the beginning of 2025. The share of electric vehicles in total sales dropped to 6%.

The decline stemmed from the introduction of a recycling fee and stricter non-tariff import restrictions. Despite the downturn, BYD increased its share in the segment to 87.6% while Xpeng lost 62.2% of its sales.