1. Continental Group overshot the EUR2 billion revenue mark and completed expansion of its R&D center in Sibiu
Germany’s Continental, the largest component manufacturer on the Romanian market, posted EUR2.020 billion revenue via its seven companies in the country last year, 10.5% more than in 2013, according to its reports.
Continental Automotive Romania, the electronic component manufacturing division of the group, completed a EUR6.5 million investment in a new three-story building for its research and development center in Sibiu.
2. Daimler completed new plant in Sebes in a EUR300 million investment
The subsidiary of German group Daimler, Star Transmission, completed its new state-of-the-art transmission plant in Sebes, Alba County (central Romania), and production will begin in the spring of 2016. The new plant took a EUR300 million investment and will create 500 jobs. The company did its manufacturing tests this year and will begin assembling the nine-speed automatic transmissions 9G-TRONIC in the spring.
3. Sales of electric cars on the rise
A number of 332 new cars with electric motors were sold in the first nine months of this year, according to the data of the Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA), double as many as in the year-ago period. Full-year sales should reach 400 units.
Electric cars saw the highest sales growth, from 3 to 22 units. The remaining up to 332 cars are hybrid vehicles, which have both a gas engine and an electric motor.
More than half of the electric cars sold this year are Tesla Model S, which have a range of 500 kilometers, compared with the 150 to 200 kilometer range of Renault ZOE and Volkswagen e-up!. Orange Romania, the largest mobile phone operator in Romania leased four Renault ZOE’s, which makes it the first company to use such vehicles in the country.
4. Dacia started automation of its Mioveni plant
Automobile Dacia, the largest company in Romania by revenue, got a EUR13 million state aid at the end of September, which covers half of the investment in a project to automate its plant in Mioveni. Its owner, Renault, started the upgrade process at the plant, where some departments will see the automation go from 10% in 2014 to 30%. The overall automation is expected to reach 20% in 2018 from the current 5%.
5. Auto market back to over 100,000 units
Looking at the first nine months statistics and the significant increase in September, the total vehicle sales may very well reach 112,000 units in 2015, about 91,000 of which cars and some 21,000 commercial utility vehicles.
Car sales stood at 82,800 in 2014 and 68,700 in 2013. The market reached its peak in 2007, when sales stood at 315,000 units.
Sales of cars rose 12% to 8,200 units in September on the year-ago month, which took the market to almost 70,000 cars in the first three quarters, 13% more than in 2014, according to APIA data.
6. Valerio Brenciaglia takes reins of Ford Romania
Valerio Brenciaglia took the position of managing director of Ford Romania on April 1, replacing Zoltan Brassai, who was appointed Brand Director – Large Cars, Product Marketing, Ford Europe. He is in charge of Ford’s sales in Romania, while Jan Gijsen, the head of the Ford plant in Craiova is the president of Ford Romania. Brenciaglia set out to drive Ford sales up 15% next year, after a 13% increase in 2015.
7. A Romanian designed a Renault regular model – the Kadjar crossover, for the first time
Victor Sfiazof, 32, became the first Romanian to design a Renault regular car, the Kadjar crossover, and his rise prompted Renault’s chief designer, Laurens van den Acker to say this fall that if Victor Sfiazof continues at the same pace, “I might have to look for another job.”
Victor Sfiazof has been senior exterior designer with the design center Renault has in Bucharest since January 2008. Born in Satu Mare, he holds a degree from the I. Andreescu University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca.
8. Dacia became the largest company South-Eastern Europe
Automobile Dacia is the largest company in SE Europe for the first time, beating OMV Petrom to the spot, thanks to its EUR4.2 billion revenue over Petrom’s EUR4.1 billion, according to a ranking compiled by business news outlet SeeNews in Sofia.
Third in the ranking is Lukoil Neftochim Burgas (Bulgaria), whose revenue stood at EUR3.3 billion in 2014, down 14% on 2013.
Romania has 53 companies among the regional top 100 and is the largest market in the region by far. Five of the ten largest companies in SeeNews’ ranking are Romanian.
9. Ford launched the Ecosport SUV, which will start being assembled in Craiova in 2017
The important thing for Romania is that besides the 1.5 liter gas and diesel engines, the new Ecosport is also available with a 1.0 liter Ecoboost engine in two versions that develop 125 and 140 HP and are made in Craiova.
The Ecosport facelift, expected in 2017, might join B-Max on the assembly lines in Craiova.
The spring, the Ford plant union leader announced the US group was considering assembly of the Ecosport model in Craiova as of 2017, with an official decision to come in the next few months. Such a move would drive production up from about 50,000 cars a year to at least 150,000 to 200,000.
The small SUV or crossover segment is the most dynamic in Europe by far and may see growth rates of as much as over 50% on a market witnessing single-digit growth.
10. Romania seeks EUR30 million from Volkswagen in the Dieselgate scandal
The former Environment Minister Gratiela Gavrilescu planned to sue Volkswagen for EUR30 million, the difference between the stated level and the actual level of pollution tax, in the Dieselgate scandal. The Environment Ministry calculated the damages caused by the sale of 105,303 cars, which had been shown to meet emission standards when they did not, because they were equipped with software than enabled them to cheat emissions tests.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)