​2022 was a difficult year for the automotive market, with many good moments, but also with bad moments. New car sales are up, even though cars are struggling to reach buyers and electric cars have had a dream year. Used car sales were lower than in 2021, but were at a high level. The increase in prices also continued in all sections.

Brief information

• The year 2022 was marked by the fact that those who want to get new cars have to wait for months, in many cases even more than a year. Plants in Western Europe are estimated to be producing at 70% of their capacity, and this percentage will increase in 2023.

• The current year is the best for electric cars, with an average of 800 per month, with the Dacia Spring accounting for half of the market. 2022 is also the weakest year for diesels, with less than 15% of new cars, but plenty of them in SH ads.

• Some people who wanted to buy a new car gave up and bought a used one, scared off by the long wait times and skyrocketing prices.

• The import passenger car market is down 20% after a very good 2021, which is hard to match. It has become increasingly difficult to find cars in very good condition, small or medium class, 4-6 years old and with a small number of kilometers. In addition, the average price of SH cars continued to increase, after 2021 also pushed prices.

• Romanians bought a lot of SH cars in the local market, the year will end with 600,000 deals, the best month is March, almost 60,000 units.

• The total vehicle fleet has exceeded 8 million vehicles, which is double the figure of 15 years ago. 51% of cars run on diesel and 42% on gasoline. The number of electricians is about 25,000 units. More than 4.4 million cars are over 16 years old.

• Bucharest has a car park with an average age of 12.9 years, with the “oldest” car park in Salai County (average age 18.4 years). There are 8.3 million driver’s license holders in the country, which is 1.5 million more than ten years ago.

The new car market is a year of growth, but with many difficulties

The new car market in 2022 has been marked by very long waiting times for those looking to purchase new models, with an average waiting time of around 5-7 months, but reaching 12 months even for models like the Dacia Logan. Shorter delivery times are for models with fewer customizations. There are also clients who have been waiting for their car for a year and a half.

The semiconductor crisis continued, and its consequences were visible. Many manufacturers prefer higher-priced, higher-margin models over high-volume models. That is why it became possible that in Europe within a few months the Volkswagen Golf ceased to be the best-selling car model, it was replaced by the VW T-Roc SUV, as well as the Peugeot 208. In Renault there were cases when the Captur surpassed the Clio in sales, and in Ford the Puma overtook Fiesta.

For almost all car models, demand is outstripping production capacity, and factory production in Western Europe is estimated to be 70% of what it was before the pandemic. Dacia and Ford plants in Romania will end 2022 with record combined production.

Compared to other years, discounts offered by dealers were also smaller and less frequent.

When eMAG announced its Black Friday deal, it also announced discounts on a number of cars, but also emphasized that these cars would be “available immediately,” an important mention in a market with long wait times.

Over 10 months, the new car market grew by 8% to 105,000 vehicles, with August being the best month with 12,538 vehicles registered and March the weakest with fewer than 8,500 vehicles.

Dacia occupies almost 30% of the market, and Toyota and Hyundai are on the podium with 8%. Ford and Skoda were respectively 4 and 5, and Renault, which for many years held second place, was 7.

At the end of the first semester, the market was 20% higher compared to a weak 2021, but everything changed in the second semester, which was extremely good last year (August 2021 brought almost 17,000 new cars registered). This year, the second semester was weaker.

Even at these slower rates, 2022 will be better than 2021 in terms of new cars, totaling more than 125,000 units.

The best year in the history of the new car market: 2007 with a total of 312,589 vehicles

Weakest year in last 15: 2013, with 57,710 units

Best year in 10 years: 2019 with 161,562 units

Best month in 15 years: June 2007 with 32,640 units

Lowest month in 15 years: January 2010 with 2,134 units

Best selling new cars

APIA data shows that the Dacia Logan ranks first in sales, with an average of 900 vehicles per month. Three other Dacia models: Duster, Sandero and Spring, as well as Ford Puma (produced in Craiova, with an average of 270 cars sold every month) completed the top 5.

6-10 places are mainly Asian models: Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Corolla, Skoda Octavia, Dacia Jogger and Toyota C-HR.

Fewer and fewer diesel cars are on offer, with their share reaching just 14% of sales in the ten months of 2022 compared to 20% in 2021. The share of gasoline also fell from 67% to 65%.

This continued the unstoppable trend of SUVs, the share of which reached almost 44%. And it is not surprising, the trend is European. For example, more than 150,000 compact SUVs were sold in the EU every month, with more than 40 models on the market. The best selling models are Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Peugeot 3008, Toyota C-HR and Nissan Qashqai. And small SUVs had excellent sales.

Electric cars

Especially thanks to the Rabla Plus program, it was an exceptional year for electric cars, with 8,500 units sold in ten months. 4,500 – Dacia Spring, almost 1,000 – Tesla and 691 – Volkswagen.

Cars like the eUp! ID 3 and ID 4 from Volkswagen, Tesla Model Y and Hyundai Kona Electric.

Compared to 2021, sales of new electric cars have tripled, especially since the cheapest Chinese-made Dacia Spring electric model has entered the market. And Spring has become more expensive by several thousand euros, like other electric models.

Imported SH cars – A 2022 with a consistent decline

The ten-month total was 277,112 vs. 338,061, and each month was weaker than the correspondence of 2021. It became increasingly difficult to find cars in very good condition, small or medium class, 4-6 years old and with low mileage. In addition, the average price of SH cars continued to increase, after 2021 also pushed prices.

The worst month was January with just over 24,000 cars and the best was March with 31,166 cars. In just two months, it exceeded 30,000 cars, while last year in 11 months this threshold was exceeded, with a maximum of more than 36,000.

Best year for SH import car market: 2017 with 518,927 cars

The weakest year of the last 15: 2011, with 94,488 units

Weakest year in 10 years: 2012, 174,950 cars

Best month in 15 years: February 2017 with 68,731 units

Lowest month in 15 years: February 2007, with 3,084 units.

Re-registrations – High numbers, intensive activity

In terms of the number of domestic SH car transactions (re-registrations), last year was the best in history – more than 655 thousand, and 2022 is unlikely to surpass it. And for cars that have changed hands within the country, the average prices have increased, and really good models are quite difficult to find.

There were also many people who bought their SH car in the country even though they wanted a new car. They chose the SH car because the waiting time for new cars was too long.

In ten months, 512,814 SH cars were re-registered in the country against 550,448 in January-October last year. The best month was March with almost 60,000 cars, the second best month after March 2021. The lowest monthly figure was in April, at less than 45,000. The market has every chance of exceeding 600,000 vehicles for the year, and this figure has only been exceeded in 2019 and 2021.

Best year for domestic SH car transactions: 2021 with 655,804 cars

Weakest year of last 15: 2013, with 205,553 units

Best month in 15 years: March 2021 with 63,998 units

Weakest month in 15 years: April 2020, with 13,823 cars

There is a rich offer for those interested in used diesel cars. Of the 35,000 car ads on Autovit.ro, almost 24,000 are diesel cars and less than 10,000 are gasoline cars.