Crisis? What oil crisis?

High oil prices may be causing pain for carmakers in America, but they have helped create a booming market in Russia

THIS week the death-knell sounded for America’s love affair with pick-up trucks and sport-utility vehicles (SUVs). General Motors (GM) announced a 30% fall in car sales in May, compared with a year earlier, as high fuel prices prompted Americans to shun its gas-guzzlers for smaller, more frugal vehicles. Ford posted a 19% drop, and sales of its F-150 pick-up fell behind Toyota’s Camry and Corolla for the first time. Most telling was the 62% fall in sales of Hummers, GM’s hulking military-style SUVs. GM announced plans to close four truck factories and a


Car ownership, at about 200 per 1,000 people, is still very low by developed-world standards. (In most of western Europe it is over 500, and in America it is around 800.) And although average incomes are lower than in the West, so is consumer debt. Heidi McCormack, GM’s head of business development in Russia, says that compared with other markets, burdened by debt and oil prices,