Companies on the auto market say one of the main reasons for the gap between sales reported to the Association of Car Manufacturers and Importers (APIA) and registrations as shown by Police records is the increase in the share of fleet sales to overall sales of a brand, in which case not all cars are registered at the same time.
The other two reasons are the delayed registration by individuals who have to pay the pollution tax, and the fact that sales are recorded at the end of the previous month.
This compares with a difference of just 1% in 2007, while in 2008 registrations exceeded sales by over 18,000 units. At that time, the announcement that the pollution tax would be hiked as of January 1 2009 for cars with over 2.0-liter engines, prompted dealers to register already existing car stocks in order to pay the tax in its old form.
In 2009, when most dealers offered discounts of up to 50% to reduce their stocks and many of them exported cars as the local market was in freefall, the difference between the number of cars sold and the number of cars registered exceeded 12%.
Officials of the local car association had not provided any
explanation on the difference between sales and registrations this
year.
George Kyriazis, general manager of Toyota Romania, told ZF “it is
regrettable that we still find artificially inflated figures, which
local vehicle distributors submit to APIA.”
He added that if comparing the car market association’s data with those supplied by the Driving License and Vehicle Registration Department (DRCPIV) “it is easy to see which companies provide false data, that include exports.”
In Toyota’s case, car sales reported were 14% higher than car registrations in the first five months, which means 126 cars out of a total of over 900.
Importers explain the difference by the fact that there is a delay between a car’s purchase and its registration.
“The difference comes mainly from the fact that most car deliveries are recorded in the last few days of the month, so there is a delay between acquisition and registration, which can amount to up to a few months,” said Laura Antonov, marketing manager of Citroen Romania.
The difference between Citroen cars registered and cars sold amounts to 45% of cars sold, or nearly 400 cars.
Another reason cited by importers is the sale of car fleets, which are registered either in the month after the delivery or after a longer period of time.
“In May, a fleet of 200 cars was delivered and the cars were registered in June. This explains the gap. No cars were sold outside Romania,” said Nissan Romania officials.