The total number of vehicle registrations in Romania dropped 28% in September compared to September 2011, to 6,476 units, according to the Interior Ministry’s license and registrations department. Registration numbers include mopeds, motorcycles, microbuses, buses, and freight transport vehicles.
Romanian carmaker Dacia remained market leader with 1,049 new cars registered in September, down 45.8% on the year, followed by Volkswagen, with a 29.9% decline to 524 units, and Skoda, which declined 37.6% to 404 units. Ford registrations only declined 1.5% to 391 units, while Renault, Dacia’s owner, declined 40.1% to 355 units.
In the European Union, new car registrations dropped 10.8% in September, to 1.09 million units, driven by a sharp contraction in the eurozone, according to data released Tuesday by the European carmakers’ association ACEA.
Germany, the biggest market in the eurozone, declined 10.9%, to around 250,000 units. In France, new car registrations dropped 17.9%, to some 137,500 units, while Italy posted a 25.7% decline, to little under 110,000 units.
Spain registered a 36.8% decline in new car registrations in September, to 35,150 units.
The sharpest decline, of 48.5%, was posted in Greece, which registered less than 3,500 units in September.
The best evolutions were posted by the UK (+8.2%, to 360,000 units) and Slovakia (+46.6%, to 7,300 units).
In Central and Eastern Europe, the Hungarian market stagnated at around 3,500 units, and registrations in Bulgaria dropped 21.6%, to 1,350 units. Poland saw a contraction of 10.7%, to 18,900 units, and the Czech Republic declined 3.9%, to 12,500 units.
In January-September, new car registrations in Romania declined 12.1%, to 49,128 units, while the EU market declined 7.6%, to 9.36 million units.