Russia Recycling Fee Rises: Recost Landed Price

The bottom line: For vehicles bound for Russia, the line that eats margin is not the 15% import tariff but the utilization (recycling) fee. From 1 December 2025 Russia raised this one-off charge by type: under 1.0 L passenger cars +25%, 1.0 to 1.5 L +30%, SUVs and crossovers 1.5 to 3.0 L +35%, trucks over 5 t +40%, buses +30%, EVs and hybrids only +10%. Worse, from 2026 the fee is indexed up another 10% to 20% every year, so a quote that buries it can look profitable and actually lose money.

875 million rubles; from January 2026 the coefficient is 136.726 million rubles, roughly 850,000 rubles of new cost per unit.

At 2026 coefficients a 160 to 190 hp crossover owes about 900,000 rubles, roughly 8,500 dollars; a 2.4 million rubles, about 23,000 dollars; engines above 3.5 L push the fee past 3 million rubles. Next to the 15% import tariff, the recycling fee is usually the larger block of landed cost, and many dealers only notice the gap when cars are stuck at the border.

Move the recycling fee from hidden line to the first line of your quote. First, get the current Russian coefficient and horsepower band for the target model and recompute it yourself as horsepower times coefficient times the 20,000-ruble base. Second, write the rate-applicability rule into the contract: units cleared before a date at the old rate, after at the new, and who pays. Third, prefer models at or below 160 hp, where the coefficient is lowest. Send the spec to recost the current Russian fee and total landed cost.