Data from the Direcția Regim Permise de Conducere și Înmatriculări (DRPCIV) showed a 14% spike in used car imports from Germany compared to the same month last year. Most were 2017–2019 diesel models—Volkswagen Golf, BMW 320d, Audi A4.
Adrian grabbed a coffee and walked to the meeting room, where his colleague Andreea was already annotating a map of Romania’s charging station network.
The average age of imported used cars had risen to 12.4 years, while their average declared value for tax purposes had dropped by 9%. That meant more older, more polluting cars entering a country struggling with air quality in its major cities. autodata ro
Andreea nodded. “I pulled the fiscal incentive data. From July, the Rabla Plus program’s budget for EVs ran out faster than ever—by mid-August. Meanwhile, the ‘Rabla for Used Cars’ (Rabla Clasic) still has funds, but it favors local trade-ins, not direct imports.”
That was the missing piece.
Adrian Ionescu, a data analyst at AutoData RO , stared at his screen in Bucharest. The dashboard before him wasn’t just numbers—it was the circulatory system of Romania’s car market. It was late October, and his team was preparing the quarterly “State of the Fleet” report.
The next morning, Adrian received an email from a dealership group in Brașov. The subject line read: “We just dropped prices on 2018 diesels and added a hybrid test-drive event. Thank you for the data.” Data from the Direcția Regim Permise de Conducere
“Look at this,” he said, sliding into a chair. “The East-West split is getting sharper. In Moldova region, people are buying old diesels from Germany. In Transylvania, they’re choosing new hybrids. In Bucharest, EV interest is stalling.”