Diesel vehicle registrations at historical minimum in Europe, but growing in Romania

Registrations of diesel cars in Europe are down to a historical minimum, but their number in Romania continues to grow, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).

The statistics show that at the European level, the share of diesel vehicles has gone down to only about a third of the market (34.7 percent) – a strong decline, as last year 43.1 percent of the cars were diesel. Petrol engines, on the other hand, saw a 15.2 percent hike in Europe, reaching 57.6 percent of the market share.

Romania’s diesel car market continued to grow, despite the decline it’s seen lately in Europe. 19,012 diesel cars were registered in Romania in Q3 – 24.2 percent more than last year. In the first three quarters, the total was 45,212, or 12.6 percent more than last year.

But the growth of petrol-fuelled cars in Romania was much larger compared to diesels, showing that diesel is losing some ground here as well, albeit much more slowly than in the rest of Europe.

Eco-friendly vehicles also increased their share – up to 7.8 percent – but only 2 percent of them are full electric cars. These types of vehicles had the biggest growth in the past year, of 29.7 percent. Full electric cars had a 37.4 percent growth, hybrids advanced by 37.1 percent, and plug-in hybrids by 24.5 percent.

Romania’s eco-friendly vehicle market also grew significantly in the third quarter, by 131.1 percent. In the first three quarters, we had a 382 percent growth in the number of electric vehicles registered, the biggest in Europe, with a total of 468 units.

In terms of hybrid cars, there were 1,279 units registered in Q3 in Romania – 96.2 percent more than the same period of last year.