​Last year, Romanians bought over 140,000 new cars and made a record number of over 660,000 used car deals within the country. It was a year where cars continued to get more expensive, and it was a new record year for 100% electric cars.

2023 is a crazy year for the car market

Last year was the first year when sales of electric cars exceeded 15,000, of which more than 6,000 were Dacia Spring and more than 3,000 Tesla. The subsidy from Rabla Plus will decrease by several thousand euros in 2024, so the question remains whether the electricity market will grow next year.

APIA projections suggested we could approach 100,000 new EVs on the road in 2027, but those estimates didn’t take into account a significant cut in subsidies in 2024.

2023 was a year where Dacia models performed well for new cars, especially the Logan, Duster and Sandero, while models such as Skoda Octavia, Renault Megane, Hyundai Tucson, Toyota Corolla and Renault Clio performed well for foreign brands. In addition, it was a year in which diesel cars’ share of total new cars ended below 12%, after being below 15% at the start of the year.

For SH cars, people turned to the likes of VW’s Passat and Golf, Skoda’s Octavia, BMW’s 3rd and 5th series, or the Audi A4. Dacia Duster SH also sold well.

It was a year where new cars, as well as SHs, continued to rise in price, but the average waiting time for new cars on order decreased.

It was a record year for SH car transactions in the domestic market, surpassing the 660,000 mark, with some months surpassing the 60,000 mark. The market saw 663,000 re-registrations to be exact, three times more than in 2015 and 30 % more than in 2017. Therefore, the “appetite” of Romanians to buy SH cars in the country was huge.

Including SH cars imported from abroad, the car market recorded more than 1.1 million transactions, so it was a busy year.

Romania’s car fleet has passed the “milestone” of 8 million cars, which is twice as much compared to 2008, when it exceeded 4 million units. According to APIA estimates, in 2027 the bar of 10 million cars can be exceeded.

The average age of the car fleet in Romania is more than 15 years for passenger cars, things are worse in Greece and the Czech Republic. Luxembourg has a fleet with an average age of less than 8 years, while Denmark, Austria and Ireland have less than 9 years.

For buses and minibuses, the average age of the fleet in Romania is 20 years.

New cars had a good year

According to DRPCIV, the market grew by 10% from 129,000 vehicles to more than 142,000 new vehicles. This was the third year in a row and the market is at its best level since 2019.

The best year for new cars in Romania was 2007 with more than 312,000, and 2008 was the last year the market exceeded 200,000. 2013 was the weakest year with less than 58,000, followed by six consecutive years of growth, reaching 161,000 new cars in in 2019.

Last year saw two weaker months of less than 10,000 vehicles (April and December), while May was the best with more than 13,600 units. The Rabla program was also important this year, and December is generally a weak month, especially since there are many free days at the end of it. June was very good.

SH cars sold in the domestic market reached unexpected records

Last year brought an all-time record for the number of SH vehicles sold locally, with a monthly average of over 55,000 with a total of 663,000 re-registrations. The best month was March with almost 65,000 re-registrations, and the worst was December with less than 43,000 cars. October and November were also very good, with over 60,000 units.

As for re-registrations, 2023 is the third year in a row when the (considerable!) bar of 600,000 cars was exceeded (the maximum was in 2021 – 655,000). In 2019, the number of re-registrations exceeded 600,000 for the first time, the first full year that the environmental vulture no longer existed.

In 2007, the number of domestic SH car transactions exceeded 400,000, while in 2013 there were half as many (about 205,000). Six years of growth followed, and the market topped 600,000.

Imports of used cars fell, but remained at more than 300,000 units.

The overall market was lower at 305,000 units, down 7% from 2022. Last year marked the sixth straight year of decline for the SH market, which peaked in 2017 at over 518,000 units. The value in 2023 is 40% lower than the peak year.

The best month in 2023 was October, when more than 29,000 cars were registered, compared to more than 28,000 in March. The weakest month was December – less than 18 thousand.

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