In 2015 Russian consumption of on-road automotive motor oils reached 432 million liters, Viktor Pushkarev, head of projects at Autostat, a Moscow consultancy, told RPIs Lubricants Russia conference held here in November. Of these, 230 million liters were used in passenger cars, 52 million liters in light commercial vehicles, 135 million liters in heavy-duty trucks and 15 million liters in buses, he said.

Autostat estimates motor oil consumption using vehicle registration statistics and information about the volume of oil used in different categories of vehicles.

Of the 136 million liters of motor oils for on-road vehicles in 2015 in Ukraine, Autostat estimated 54 million liters went to passenger cars, 19 million liters to light commercial vehicles, 56 million liters to heavy-duty trucks and 7 million liters to buses, Pushkarev said.

The 42 million liters of on-road motor oils consumed in Kazakhstan included 20 million liters for passenger cars, 4 million liters for light commercial vehicles, 16 million liters for heavy-duty trucks and 2 million liters for buses.

In 2015 Russian had an active vehicle population of 49 million units, including 41.9 million passenger cars, 4 million light commercial vehicles, 3.7 million heavy-duty trucks and 390,000 busses, said Pushkarev.

Ukraine had 12.4 million vehicles, including 9.6 million passenger cars, 1.4 million light commercial vehicles, 1.6 million heavy-duty trucks and 180,000 were buses. The Kazakh vehicle population was 4.3 million units, of which 3.5 million were passenger cars, 310,000 were light commercial vehicles, 440,000 were heavy-duty trucks, and 50,000 were buses.

Autostat found the Russian Lada brand was most popular in all three countries, accounting for 34 percent share of the on-road passenger car population in both Russia and Ukraine. In Kazakhstan, 23 percent of passenger cars are Ladas.

In Russia, the most popular foreign car brands in 2015 were Toyota (8.7 percent of the total passenger car fleet), Nissan (4.6 percent) and Chevrolet (3.8 percent). In Ukraine it was Opel (3.1 percent), Toyota (2.3 percent) and Chevrolet (2.3 percent). In 2015 in Kazakhstan, the most popular foreign car brands were Toyota (12.6 percent), Volkswagen (7.8 percent) and Audi (6.7 percent).

The CIS motorists use similar sale channels when buying motor oils, according to Autostat.

The three countries car owners have similar habits when shopping for engine oil. Russia dominates the regions market and of the cultural likeness buying habits are similar in the three countries, Pushkare said. The consultancy extrapolated data after a conducted survey of the Russian motorists in 2015.

Where foreign car brand owners are concerned, 43 percent of the responded motorists said they bought engine oil from the auto part shops, 30 percent at car dealerships and 12 percent at service stations. In addition, 5 percent of the surveyed motorists said they bought the motor oil online, and 4 percent purchased it at the supermarkets, while 2 percent each bought from lubricant dealerships and fuel stations.

Seventy percent of the owners of Russian car brands buy their motor oil in auto parts stores, 10 percent in service stations and 8 percent at dealerships. In addition, 6 percent of the respondents who own Russian cars bought motor oil in fuel stations, 3 percent in big supermarkets, and just 1 percent made their purchase online.