A roll call of luxury carmakers have descended on Russia to rally the nation's long list of billionaires to snap up their latest models in the wake of last year's industry collapse.
Porsche, Jaguar, Cadillac and Bentley are among a host of high end manufacturers renting space at this year's Russia International Motorshow.
All four groups expect Russia sales to grow this year as the industry recovers from last year's crisis, driven by rising consumer confidence among the super wealthy and in some cases a restructuring of sales and dealership networks.
"In the first half of this year sales increased by 35 percent ... We did not expect such increases, so now we do not have enough cars for our clients," said Vagif Bikulov, General Manager of Bentley's Moscow dealership, ahead of the show's launch of the Bentley Mulsanne in Russia.
SILVER PORSCHE
Russia's motorshow did not take place in 2009 as the global economic meltdown devastated car sales in Russia -- a coveted target for foreign players who see it as a high growth market.
Organizers of the show, which opens to the public on Friday, expect more than 1.5 million driving enthusiasts to view over 600 cars over 10 days at the 100,000 square meter arena, including eight world premiers.
Among the most talked-about is a new silver Porsche 911 that costs a minimum of 11.5 million roubles ($287,500) -- not including optional extras such as a $10,000 spoiler -- and an armored Jaguar XJ for security conscious oligarchs.
"Porsche sales were down 35 percent in Russia last year -- more than in our other markets -- but what the crisis showed was the need to further develop the dealer network -- 2009 was a year of learning, restructuring," said Porsche Russia chief Thomas Startzel.
