Romanian car market in 2023 closed with a total of 142,476 sales, a 10.2% increase compared to last year. December broke a 10 month positive trend, falling 25.6% with a mere 9,249 sales.
Market Trend and Outlook
Romanian Car Sales throughout 2023 reached a total of 142,476 units and are up 10.2% in comparison to the previous year. Despite this trend, in December 2023 the number of sales broke a 10th month positive record, reaching only 9,249 new registrations (-25.6%).
Looking at cumulative data from 2023 brand-wise, the leader was still Dacia with 45,281 sales (+13.4%), followed by Renault -up 4 spots- at 10,562 sales (+25.1%) and Toyota -down 1 spot- with 10,531 registrations (+4.2%).
Skoda ranked in 4th with a total of 10,376 units sold (+19.7%), followed by Volkswagen -up 2 spots- at 9,795 (+19.4%), Hyundai -down 3 spots- at 8,840 (-7.4%) and Ford -down 2 spots- at 6,585 sales (-24.0%).
Mercedes in 8th with 4,691 registrations (+24.3%), in front of BMW -up 1 spot- at 4,612 sales (+54.7%) and Suzuki -up 2 spots- closed the Top 10 with 4,572 units sold (+73.5%).
Looking at specific models the Dacia Logan remained the best seller with a 23.5% increase in year-on-year sales, followed by the Dacia Duster in 2nd up 4.2%.
Medium-Term Market Trend
From 2010 to 2013 the Romanian car market fell from 88,969 to 56,939 sales by the end of 2013. In 2014 started a 6 year long uptrend that would end in 2019 at the current all-time high with 161,504 new car passenger registrations.
The arrival of the pandemic in 2020 affected markets all around Europe, with the Romanian one losing 22% and reaching 126,375 sales by the end of the year.
In 2021 car passenger sales continued to fall, ending the year at 121,181 total registrations (-4%). Luckily the Romanian car market in 2022 recovered, with sales growing 6.7% to 129,327. In the following years the Romanian market is going to face issues that are emerging in the automotive industry: the disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for the production of microchips and Governments push towards Evs, an expensive alternative for low income consumers.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models
