Romanian car market, down by 22.5pct in August (APIA)

Vehicle registrations decreased by 22.5pct in Romania, at the level of August this year, compared to the similar period in 2021, a margin in which, however, new cars registered a jump of 5.2pct, shows from the market analysis published on Tuesday by the Association of Automobile Makers and Importers (APIA).

"After the important evolution of the first months, August 2022 comes with a 22.5pct decrease in vehicle registrations compared to the previous year, a decrease recorded after 5 months of growth since the beginning of this year. If we refer to previous years, the month of August 2022 is up by 10.9pct compared to the similar period in 2020 and down by 47.4pct compared to August 2019, the cited source mentions.

According to APIA, in the national market, the Top 10 brands, passenger cars + commercial vehicles, after eight months of 2022, is led by Dacia - with 24,412 units, followed by Ford (8,198), Toyota (7,243), Renault (6,634), Hyundai (6,607), Volkswagen (5,884), Skoda (5,508), Mercedes Benz (4,699), Peugeot (2,832) and Kia (1,982), told Agerpres.

Cars, which represent approximately 84pct of the total, recorded, in August 2022, a volume of 12,448 units, 22pct less than in the same month of 2021. At the level of the first eight months of the current year, the increase is 5.2pct compared to the same period in 2021.

In terms of market share, the SUV segment is in first position, with 44.5pct, up 0.7pct compared to 2021, followed by C-Class (26pct, -1.9pct) and B-Class (17.5pct, -3.3pct).

Depending on the type of fuel of registered cars, in the first eight months of this year, petrol engines registered a 3.3pct increase compared to the same period of the previous year, up to a share of 65.7pct. At the same time, cars with diesel engines registered a decrease of 33.6pct, compared to the reference period, with a share of 13.6pct of the total.

On the other hand, "electrified" cars, respectively electric ones (100pct and plug-in hybrids), as well as full hybrid ones (which also have electric propulsion without charging from an external source), came to hold, after eight months from 2022 , a market share of 20.6pct, which exceeds by 7pct and 5,773 units the share held by diesel engines. Full electric cars have a share of 7.8pct of the market, in the analyzed period, compared to the year 2021 when they represented only 2pct.