New car sales in Romania, which include both passenger cars and commercial vehicles, grew by 23.3% in the first four months of 2014 compared to the same period last year, to just over 27,000 units, according to data released by the Romanian Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA). Over 80% of sales volumes come from Romanian companies.
Romania-insider.com noted that April sales were up year on year for the 10th month in a row, the first time this has happened in the last five years, according to APIA.
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Used car registrations for the period January – April 2014 were down 10% compared to the first four months in 2013, to 64,286 units. However, used cars sales are still 3.5 times higher than new car sales.
Of the 27,000 new vehicles sold in Romania during the first four months, 22,000 were passenger cars. The growth rate for this segment was 21.7%.
Romania brand Dacia continues to be market leader, with 6,939 passenger cars sold, up by a third compared to the same period last year. Second was Volkswagen, with almost 2,189 units sold, which is a 5% increase. Skoda sold 2,149 units sold, 42% more than in the first four months of 2013. These three share about half of the market, with the rest divided between 30 other brands.
Ford sold 1,500 cars and posted the highest growth, of 56%. Next were Renault, Opel, Toyota, Peugeot, Hyundai and Mercedes Benz.
The number of vehicles produced in Romania in the first four months went down by 3.4% compared to the same period last year, to 142,123 units. Almost 120,000 units were produced by Dacia and about 22,200 came from the Ford B-Max factory in Craiova. Exports grew by 4.6%, to 130,547 units.
