The Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) data showed a significant decline in car production in April due to weak demand and restrictive measures taken in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Only 30,000 passenger cars were produced in April, down by 79.2% from the same month a year ago. At the height of the financial crisis, production was nearly 19,000 units below August 2009 levels, down by 85% from the same period a year earlier.

Russia's car industry will receive 25 billion rubles in state aid this year, and with direct state support, Russian carmakers will produce 220,000 more cars and commercial vehicles by 2020.

Most Russian carmakers resumed production in early April but reduced production because of weak demand.