The current year will be the first year in which sales of new all-electric cars will exceed diesel sales, according to the APIA forecast. The association estimates that the new car market will grow by 10% this year, and there is a good chance that the subsidies offered for the purchase of electric cars in the Rabla Plus program will be increased in line with inflation.

The total new car market was 127,000 units last year, and the Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Importers predicts it will grow 10% in 2023 to 140,000 units. At this level, the market will be below pre-pandemic levels, when it approached 160,000 units in 2018 and 2019. Almost a quarter of the 140,000 cars will be all-wheel drive.

The most impressive growth is expected for fully electric cars, almost 20,000, compared to 11,600 last year, given that there is a good chance that the Rabla plus budget will increase significantly and the recycling premium will be adjusted for inflation, so it will increase by 15% for purchase of new electric cars, which will “remove” about 10,000 euros from the list price.

The decline of diesel will continue, which this year will make up about 10% of the market, i.e. 14 thousand units, which means that for the first time the number of diesel cars will be less than the number of electric cars registered in the country. . In total, APIA estimates that in 2023, the total number of all-electric engines sold will be 19,750, and diesel engines – 14,100. For comparison, last year there were 6 thousand more diesels than electric cars.

Dan Vardy, president of APIA, says fully electric cars have every chance of exceeding APIA’s forecast and surpassing 20,000 units this year.

In the last five years, the fall of diesel fuel was strong: in 2017, more than 60 thousand diesels were sold, in 2019 there were only 42 thousand of them, and in 2021 – about 22.5 thousand. This year there will be more than 8 thousand fewer of them. Data for the new car market only.

In the segments, SUVs of all sizes will remain the most popular. Last year, Romanians bought 55,000 SUVs, and more than 61,000 are expected in 2023. For comparison, in 2017, less than 35,000 SUVs and 54,400 C-class cars were sold. In 2023, the C-Class falls under the forecast of less than 34,000, and SUVs have 80% more volumes.

The total number of gasoline vehicles is estimated to be almost 86,000 in 2023, up from 82,500 last year. According to APIA, 2019 was the best year in recent history for gasoline cars, with more than 110,000 units sold.

For hybrid vehicles, an increase from about 16,000 to more than 20,000 is expected.

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