ZAGREB, April 6, 2020 - A total of 2,724 new passenger cars were sold in Croatia in March 2020, which is 45.9% fewer than in the same month of 2019, the Promocija Plus market research agency said on Monday.
The best-selling car model was the Skoda Octavia, with 130 units sold, ahead of the Volkswagen T-Cross (99), the VW Golf (84), the Dacia Duster (82) and the Suzuki Vitara (71).
In the first quarter of this year, sales of new cars fell by 17.4% to 10,029 vehicles compared with the same period in 2019.
During the first three months of the year, Volkswagen vehicles topped the sales list with 1,661 new cars sold, followed by Skoda (1,481), Renault (657), Dacia (583), Hyundai (525) and Suzuki (524).
Most of the new cars sold used petrol for fuel - 5,855 vehicles or 58.4%, while 3,492 vehicles (34.8%) were fuelled by diesel, 62 were electric cars (0.6%) and 555 were hybrids (5.5%).
Transport expert Željko Marušić told Hina that this was just the beginning of a major crisis for the car industry and that new car sales would be drastically falling in the months ahead.
"Many people's livelihoods are already at risk and they will not be thinking of buying even a used car, let alone a new one," Marušić said, adding that "sales will not return to their previous levels for a long time." He said that new car sales in Croatia could plunge by as much as 70% in the coming months.
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