Great joy, sure sorrow: what Romanian drivers need to know about the car market, in fact

The figures recorded by the Romanian car market, at the beginning of 2022, look good and indicate that it is on an upward trend. However, if a specialist analyzes the situation as a whole, we find that behind the apparent success, there are major earthquakes, about which Romanian drivers interested in new acquisitions should know.

More precisely, it seems that we started the year with an increase in the number of registrations, compared to the level registered in 2021. However, a Profit.ro analysis reveals important decreases, behind its screen. It is about the fact that in the level of production, our country registered, in January, a volume of assembled cars well below the monthly average that we were used to, in the past years.

What are the real numbers

“Compared to December, January brought a decrease of 2,500 units, ie -21.1%. In fact, the last quarter of 2021 was above the level of January 2022, given that each month of the quarter had decreased compared to the previous year.

Compared to previous years, the level in January 2022 was 23.8% lower compared to January 2020 and 34.7% lower compared to January 2019, according to APIA data. This means that the January advance was only a relative one, caused by a very weak January 2021. February 2021 was just as weak, so it is expected that in February 2022 we will have a big increase, but with absolute figures also under the previous years and under the performance months of 2021 “, states the quoted source.

The EU car market is also expected to return to growth in 2022 after two years of decline, but registrations will remain 20% below 2019 as chip shortages continue to hamper production, according to the ACEA industry group.

Stabilizing the chip supply should allow car registrations to reach 10.5 million vehicles this year, 7.9% above 2021, ACEA said in a statement, urging the EU to increase regional chip production to reduce dependence on external suppliers.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association also pointed out that electric vehicles now account for almost one in five new cars sold in the EU and, while welcoming the performance, said the launch of the charging infrastructure was delayed.

“Electric car sales have more than 10 times increased between 2017 and 2021, while the number of public chargers in the EU has increased by less than 2.5 times over the same period,” said Oliver Zipse, ACEA President and CEO of BMW. .