In August 2016, vehicles sales rose nearly 25%. Sales of locally-made vehicles fell 5% on the year in the first eight months of 2016, while sales of imported cars rose 24.7%, the Romanian Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA) said in a statement.
In January-August 2016, registrations of imported used cars rose 25%, above the growth registered by new cars, which triggers an increasing ratio between used and new cars, namely, 3.4 used cars per one new car.
Total vehicle production stood at 240,005 units in January-August 2016, down 6.5% compared with the first eight months of 2015. Of these, 211,130 were produced by Dacia and 28,875 by Ford. The highest volumes were registered by car model Dacia Duster (a total 120,980 units were made, namely, 14.8% more units than in the first eight months of 2015), followed by Dacia Sandero (37,116 units, 8.9% fewer than in the same period in 2015), Ford B-MAX (28,875 units, 13.1% fewer than in the same interval in 2015), Dacia Logan (26,795 units, 48.5% fewer than in the same timeframe in 2015), and Dacia Logan MCV (26,239 units, 4.3% more units).
Exports fell 9.2% to 215,903 units on the backdrop of declines in seven of the eight months of 2016, compared with the same months in 2015. The most exported car model was Dacia Duster (118,527 units), up 14.5% against 2015, followed by Dacia Sandero (31,485 units, a 16% decline vs 2015), Ford B-MAX (28,002 units, a 15.4% decline vs 2015), Logan MCV (23,747 units, a 1.6% decline) and Dacia Logan (14,142 units, a 64.2% decline). In fact, 90% of the local vehicle production in the first eight months was exported, compared with 92.7% in 2015.
In terms of car brands, the ranking is led by Dacia, with 20,968 units (a 29.7% market share and 3.7% lower volumes vs. the same period in 2015), followed by Volkswagen with 7,384 units (a 10.5% market share and 18.7% higher volumes vs. 2015); Skoda with 6,611 units (a 9.4% market share and 20.2% higher volumes); Renault with 5,243 units (a 7.4% market share and 41.4% higher volumes); Ford with 4,362 units (a 6.2% market share and 12.1% higher volumes) and Opel, with 3,325 units (a 4.7% market share and 41.6% higher volumes).