Romania sees 25 pct increase in car registrations at 8 months. Dacia boosts sales by 30 pct in the EU

New passenger car registrations went up by 25.8 percent in the first eight months of the year compared to 2013, Romania recording the fourth growth rate within the European Union, after Portugal (+35.7 pct), Ireland (+30.1 pct) and Croatia (+27.3 pct), according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). The upturn is in line with the overall evolution of the EU market where demand for new cars was 6 percent higher than in the same period of last year. Also, in August 2014, Romania has seen a 1.4 percent advance year-on-year in new passenger car registrations, below the overall 2.1 percent increase in the EU.

Within January 1 and August 31, 2014, only two of the 27 EU states recording a declining demand for new cars: Austria (-4.6 pct) and Belgium (-0.8 pct). In August, though, France, Germany and Italy registered a slight decrease (-2.6 pct, -0.4 pct and -0.2 pct, respectively), while the other major markets expanded, registering a 13.7 percent increase in Spain and 9.4 percent, in the UK.

As regards car registrations by manufacturer, Dacia continues to see increasing demand, new passenger vehicles registered in the analyzed period amounting to nearly 248,000 – 30.2 percent more than in the first eight months of last year. The Romanian brand member of Renault group recorded the highest growth rate within the EU market, similar to Lexus, yet the Japanese manufacturer saw only 17,000 new registrations and a drop by 20 percent in August 2014. Dacia maintained the uptrend in the previous month as well, new registrations increasing slightly, by 2.7 percent over August 2013.

With the continuous improvement since the beginning of the year, Dacia reached a market share of 3 percent after eight months in 2014, while after the same period last year the car manufacturer had a share of 2.4 percent.