2024-01-07 11:00:00
Last year, Romanians bought over 140,000 new cars and made a record number of over 660,000 transactions with second-hand cars domestically. It was a year where cars continued to get more expensive, and it was a new record year for 100% electric cars.
MachineFoto: Radub85, Dreamstime.com
2023 – A crazy year for the car market
Last year was the first in which sales of electric cars exceeded 15,000, of which more than 6,000 were Dacia Spring and more than 3,000 Tesla. The subsidy from Rabla Plus will decrease by several thousand euros in 2024, so it is a question whether the electricity market will still grow next year.
APIA forecasts indicated that we might be approaching 100,000 new electric cars on the road in 2027, but those estimates did not factor in a big subsidy cut in 2024.
2023 was a year in which Dacia models did well for new cars, especially Logan, Duster and Sandero, and models such as Skoda Octavia, Renault Megane, Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Corolla and Renault Clio did very well for foreign brands. It was also the year in which the share of diesel cars in the total number of new cars reached below 12% towards the end, following being below 15% at the beginning of the year.
For SH cars, people turned to models like VW’s Passat and Golf, Skoda’s Octavia, BMW’s 3 Series and 5 Series or Audi’s A4. Dacia Duster SH also sold well.
It was a year in which new cars, as well as SHs, continued to rise in price, but the average waiting times for new cars ordered decreased.
It was a record year for SH car transactions domestically, surpassing the 660,000 mark, with some months surpassing the 60,000 mark. The market passed more precisely 663,000 re-registrations, which means three times more than it was in 2015 and 30% more than the total of 2017. Therefore, the “appetite” of Romanians to buy SH cars in the country was huge .
Including SH cars brought in from abroad, the car market saw over 1.1 million transactions, so it was a busy year.
The car park in Romania has passed the “milestone” of 8 million cars, which is double compared to 2008, when it passed 4 million units. APIA estimates show that in 2027 the level of 10 million cars might be exceeded.
The average age of the car fleet in Romania is more than 15 years for passenger cars, with Greece and the Czech Republic doing worse. Luxembourg has a car fleet with an average age of less than 8 years, and Denmark, Austria and Ireland, less than 9 years.
For buses and minibuses, the average age of the car fleet is 20 years in Romania.
New cars had a good year
The market grew by 10%, from 129,000 cars, to more than 142,000 new cars, according to DRPCIV data. It was the third consecutive year of growth and the market is at its best level since 2019.
The best year for new cars in Romania was 2007, with over 312,000, and 2008 was the last year when the market exceeded 200,000. 2013 was the weakest year at under 58,000, followed by six consecutive years of growth, reaching 161,000 new cars in 2019.
Last year there were two weaker months at under 10,000 cars (April and December), while May was the best at over 13,600 units. The Rabla Program was also important this year, and December is generally a weak month, especially since there are many free days towards the end of it. June was very good.
SH cars sold domestically reached unsuspected records
Last year brought an all-time record for SH cars traded locally, with a monthly average of over 55,000, with a total of 663,000 re-registrations. The best month was March with almost 65,000 re-registrations and the worst was December with less than 43,000 cars. October and November were also very good, with over 60,000 units.
Regarding re-registrations, 2023 is the third consecutive year in which the (not small!) level of 600,000 cars was exceeded (the maximum was in 2021, 655,000). Re-registrations exceeded 600,000 for the first time in 2019, the first full year in which the environmental stamp no longer existed.
Domestic SH car transactions exceeded 400,000 in 2007, while in 2013 they were half that (around 205,000). Six years of growth followed, with the market reaching over 600,000.
Imported used cars fell but remained at over 300,000 units.
The total market was below 305,000 units, down 7% from 2022. Last year was the sixth consecutive year of decline for the SH market which had peaked in 2017 at over 518,000 units. The value in 2023 is 40% below that of the peak year.
The best month in 2023 was October, with more than 29,000 cars registered, and in March there were more than 28,000. The weakest month was December with less than 18,000.
Photo source: Dreamstime.com
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