Taxi companies and car sharing companies began selling cars en masse

Taxi and car sharing companies began to remove cars from service en masse and send them up for auction. Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports this.

According to experts, every quarter up to 15-20 percent of the total volume of vehicles of active taxi fleets goes to auctions. Replacement of retired cars is not happening so quickly and mainly with domestic models.

There is a strict legal restriction in the taxi segment: the validity period of a permit to transport passengers is five years. For car sharing, the service life of cars is up to five, and in some cases up to three years.

“The origin of a car from a taxi does not mean that the car is necessarily in poor condition. The auction also includes cars that leasing companies seized a few months after the start of operation,” said Ekaterina Smirnova, press secretary of the Public Council for Taxi Development.

Buyers of former taxi cars are both private individuals focusing on low prices and small regional taxi fleets. From March 1, 2026, taxis are required to use Russian-made vehicles.