​On Tuesday, the Rabla Clasic and Rabla Plus programs were launched, the budget of the first of which dropped sharply compared to last year. This trend will continue in the coming years, so that in a few years the Rabla program will end up financing only “environmentally friendly” cars, said Environment Minister Mircea Fecet.

Electric car during chargingPhoto: M. Starychenko, Dreamstime.com

In 2024, Rabla Plus has a budget of one billion lei, which is more than three times the budget of Rabla Clasic, where the budget is 300 million lei, almost half of the 2023 edition.

And in the coming years, the Rabla Classic budget will continue to decrease and the money will be directed to the Rabla Plus, so that there will come a point when the Rabla Classic as we know it today will disappear, because it will no longer be subsidized by the state for the purchase of gasoline or diesel cars. Subsidies will be only for electric cars and hybrids. It remains to be seen which hybrids will be included: only those that connect to the network, or also “soft”.

  • Everything you need to know about Rabla 2024 programs

“We will fulfill our promise: we will take the money from Rabla Clasic – that is, from diesel engines, gasoline and other types of traditional combustion – and transfer the money to Rabla Plus. This is what will happen this year and what will happen in the years to come. We have to understand that in a few years this increase on the one hand and decrease on the other hand will mean that we will only finance environmentally friendly cars at a certain time,” Environment Minister Mircea Fecet said at the launch. Rabla 2024.

The minister says that a working group will be set up these days, which will include representatives of the AFM, representatives of local car manufacturers, car dealers and finance companies, to decide what the Rabla programs should look like in the future. Specific decisions regarding the financing of car fleets, as well as the financing of the costs of leasing or renting electric cars, will be discussed.

“I think we are entering a new era in terms of the architecture of the Rabla Clasic and Rabla Plus programs,” said Fesche.

Those at AFM said that in 19 years, more than a million old cars have been scrapped and more than 700,000 new cars have been bought through Rabla programs.

The first Rabla program was held in 2005, when the scrapping premium was 3,000 lei and almost 15,000 cars were scrapped.

2010 was a record year, when 190,000 old cars were scrapped and 62,000 new ones were bought. The then budget was 722 million lei.

Photo source: Dreamstime.com