“If the scenario with one scrappage voucher that can be sold from person to person is kept, it is very possible to see a lot of people scrapping their old cars, sell the voucher for EUR800-EUR1,000 and with this money they will go to the West and buy a car older than 10-15 years, which pollutes even more than the scrapped car because the environmental stamp duty has a low value for non-Euro, Euro 1 and 2 cars. So people can exchange a polluting car for another polluting car, which the Romanian state will pay for,” said Zoltan Brassai, general manager of Ford Romania. The Romanian authorities did not take any measure in the past few years to put an end to the grey market of vouchers.
The 2013 scrappage scheme will start in mid May with 20,000 vouchers, each worth EUR1,500, but only one voucher can be used for the acquisition of one car, instead of three, as was the case between 2010 and 2012. 17,000 tickets will be allocated to individuals and companies and the remaining 3,000 to public institutions.
This compares with 45,000 vouchers issued last year, each worth EUR900, but then it was possible to use up to three vouchers to buy a new car.
The system led to the creation of a grey market of voucher trading so the price of a voucher reached up to EUR700, which is why the car market on the segment of individuals was stuck.
While some companies continue to support the clunkers for cash scheme, citing the fact that Romania’s car fleet is one of the oldest in Europe, at an average of over 13 years, there are companies such as Ford and Porsche Romania who argue in favor of suspending the scheme.
“After eight years of the scheme one should take a break and start again in three or four years’ time. A lot of the people who have ‘clunkers’ cannot afford a new car now. The clunkers for cash scheme is doing more harm than good and we don’t expect the 20,000 units [planned] to be reached this year,” Zoltan Brassai said.
Despite the fact that 190,000 old cars were scrapped in 2010 and 120,000 in 2011, the average age of Romania’s car fleet went up, as the pollution tax encouraged imports of old cars. Moreover, the current environmental stamp duty has been cut by up to 90% for cars older than 10-15 years that fall into the non-Euro, Euro 1 and Euro 2 categories.
Ford’s Romanian car sales down 40%
In the first quarter of this year Ford’s sales on the Romanian market fell 28% year-on-year, to a little over 1,000 vehicles. Car sales declined by 40%, to 725 units, while utility vehicle sales rose 2% to 257 units.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)