ZAGREB, 13 June, 2021 - A total of 19,167 new passenger cars were sold in Croatia in January-May 2021, a 44.3% increase from the same period last year, and 4,483 new vehicles were sold in May 2021 alone, over twice as many as in May 2020, show the data released by the Promocija Plus market research agency last Monday.

In the first five months of 2020, which were significantly affected by the negative economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, which began to produce a more significant effect in March, 13,286 new vehicles were sold, of which 2,173 were sold in May 2020, which is 2,310 fewer than in May 2021.

In the first five months of this year, Volkswagen sold the most new vehicles, 2,928, accounting for a 15.3% share in total sales. It was followed by Škoda with 2,420 new vehicles sold and a market share of 12.6%, Suzuki (1,202 vehicles, 6.3% share), Renault (1,198 vehicles), Kia (1,108 vehicles), Dacia (1,052), Opel (1,010) and Hyundai (984 vehicles, 5.13% share).

The best selling models in May were the Dacia Duster and the Škoda Octavia, with 164 units sold each, ahead of the Suzuki Vitara (160), the Volkswagen T-Roc (135), the Renault Clio (133), the Renault Megane (121), the Volkswagen T-Cross (103)) and the Opel Corsa (101).

In the first five months of 2021, the best selling model was the Škoda Octavia (977), and it was followed by the VW T-Cross (690), the Dacia Duster (679) and the VW T-Roc (642).

In January-May 2021, 10,354 petrol vehicles were sold, accounting for 54% of all sales, followed by 5,254 (27.4%) diesel-fuelled vehicles, 210 (1.1%) electric cars, 620 (3.2%) vehicles powered by natural gas and 2,729 (14.2%) hybrids.

So far this year, the largest number of cars were sold in the Zagreb region (8,184), followed by Šibenik-Knin County (1,799), Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (1,309), Split-Dalmatia County (1,240) and Osijek-Baranja County (1,113), while Lika-Senj County ranked last, with 69 new cars sold.

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ZAGREB, May 5, 2020 - Only 1,084 new passenger cars were sold in Croatia in April 2020, which is 87.4% fewer than in the same month in 2019, while 11,113 were sold since the start of the year, a decrease of 46.5% year on year, according to data provided by the Promocija Plus market research agency.

In the year to the end of April, Volkswagen (VW) was the best-selling car brand with 1,865 units sold, ahead of Skoda (1,674), Renault (739), Dacia (652) and Hyundai (555).

In April, the best-selling models were the Skoda Octavia (84 vehicles sold), the VW Golf (55), the VW T-Cross (32) and the Dacia Duster (32).

The low sales were due to the fact that all car dealerships were closed as part of restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first four months of 2020, 6,468 vehicles sold were powered by petrol, which is 58.2% of the total sales, 3,871 used diesel (34.8%), 75 were electric vehicles (0.7%) and 618 were hybrids (5.6%).

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ZAGREB, April 27, 2020 - A total of 893 new passenger and light delivery vehicles were registered in Croatia in the first three weeks of April, a decline of 87.4% compared with the same month last year, the Promocija Plus market research agency said on Monday.

Between April 1 and 22, only 893 vehicles were registered (698 passenger cars and 195 light delivery vehicles), compared to 7,136 vehicles in April 2019.

A total of 12,888 new vehicles were sold from the start of the year to April 22, a decrease of 40% compared with the same period in 2019 when 21,542 new vehicles were sold.

In the year to April 22, the best-selling car brand was Volkswagen, with 2,172 units sold, ahead of Skoda (1,613), Renault (1,146), Dacia (730) and Citroen (639).

The decline in new car sales in April was expected as the economy was paralysed by restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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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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ZAGREB, March 20, 2020 - The AD Plastik car parts manufacturer said on Friday that it was forced to suspend most of its production in Croatia, Serbia and Hungary due to its customers, global automobile companies, halting their production.

"As our customers, leading automobile manufacturers, have stopped their production (...) we have been forced to halt most of our production in Croatia, Serbia and Hungary," the company said in a press release on the effect of the coronavirus on its business, published by the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE).

AD Plastik underscores that it cannot predict how long the current situation will last, since it depends on the situation on the global market and its customers' activities.

For the time being, the company's production units in Russia operate according to plan, and project activities to develop components for new vehicle models are continuing, AD Plastik says.

We are fully focused and determined to maintain the company's vitality in order to meet our customers' demands and are taking all measures necessary to continue doing business, AD Plastik said in the press release, noting that it communicates with its customers and suppliers on a daily basis and is ready to continue with production as soon as its customers make their first requests.

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ZAGREB, February 6, 2020 - Nearly 65% of Croatians are inclined to alternatives to vehicles powered by petroleum fuels, but are not too keen on the idea of car sharing, a survey by tyre manufacturer Goodyear shows.

Goodyear has conducted an online poll in Slovenia and Croatia using the Facebook application Messenger to find out what people think about mobility in the future. The survey covered 1,794 Croatians and 962 Slovenians; it was held between 24 October and 24 November 2019 in Croatia and between 15 November and 16 December in Slovenia.

The survey found that Croatians are inclined to alternatives to classic vehicles powered by petroleum fuels as 34% of respondents said they would opt for electric vehicles, 31% would choose hybrids and 35% preferred petrol cars.

On the other hand, those interviewed were far less thrilled about the idea of car sharing. If they could choose between their own car, a high-speed train and car sharing, only 13% said they would opt for the latter, while a vast majority (76%) would choose their own vehicle.

The survey also found that nearly 80% of respondents in Croatia believe that passenger vehicles will be able to fly in the future.

The survey did not show any significant differences in responses between Croatians and Slovenians. The greatest difference was noticed in the view on electric vehicles as 50% of Slovenians would choose them, 32% would opt for hybrid vehicles and only 17.5% preferred petrol vehicles.

More car industry news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, January 20, 2020 - A total of 64,349 new cars were registered for the first time in Croatia in 2019, an increase of 4.2% on 2018, while the number of used cars registered last year rose by 7% to 84,913, according to data provided by the Centre for Vehicles of Croatia (CVH).

Of the new cars, 38,487 or 60% were fuelled by petrol. The number of petrol-powered cars increased by 16.9% compared with 2018, while the number of those using diesel fell by 13.9% to 23,515.

The number of new electric vehicles registered in 2019 increased to 198 from 144 in 2018, and the number of hybrids rose from 781 to 1,560.

The CVH said that the most popular car brand in Croatia was Volkswagen, among both new and used vehicles on first registration, ahead of Renault. Among used cars, these two brands were followed by BMW, Audi and Mercedes, and among new cars, by Opel, Škoda and Peugeot.

The first-time registered used cars were dominated by diesel-fuelled vehicles and their number increased by 6.5% to 74,950. The number of used petrol-powered cars registered for the first time in 2019 was 9,089, up by 10.9% compared with 2018.

The number of used hybrid cars increased from 206 in 2018 to 241 in 2019, and that of used electric cars rose from 38 to 81.

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ZAGREB, January 13, 2020 - In 2019, 62,938 new passenger vehicles were sold in Croatia, 4.8 percent more than in 2018, while 4,022 new cars were sold just in December, skyrocketing by 66.7 percent in comparison with December 2018, the Promocija Plus market research company has recently stated.

The best seller in 2019 was Volkswagen, with 8,481 new cars sold and a 13.5 percent market share.

The runner up was Skoda, with 5,873 vehicles sold and 9.3 percent market share, while Renault took up third place with 5,807 vehicles sold and 9.2 percent market share.

Last year, Opel sold 5,291 vehicles (a 8.4 percent market share), and Renault subsidiary Dacia sold 3,685 new vehicles (a 5.8 percent market share).

Suzuki takes sixth place with 3,670 new cars sold, followed by Peugeot (3,584), Hyundai (3,171), Fiat (2,678), and Toyota was tenth (2,605 sold vehicles).

As for Croatia's favourite German manufacturers, Audi sold 1,656 new cars, BMW 1,459 and Mercedes 1,252 cars.

Skoda Octavia, which was chosen by 3,320 buyers in 2019, was the year's best-selling model. The runner up was Renault Clio, with 2,347 cars sold, and VW Golf came third (2,304). Suzuki Vitara was fourth (1,762), followed by Dacia Duster (1,586).

In 2019, 38,467 petrol vehicles were sold (61.1 percent of all sales), followed by 22,116 diesel cars (35.1 percent). However, many upscale manufacturers produce mostly diesel cars, which comprise 85.7 percent of Mercedes' sales, 80.9 percent of BMW's sales, and 58.6 percent of Audi's sales. Volkswagen sold an almost equal number of petrol and diesel cars, namely 48.6 percent of petrol cars, and 51.2 percent of diesel cars.

Only 193 electric cars were sold in 2019, with a 0.3 percent market share, which is significantly lower than in developed European countries. There were also 1,641 hybrid vehicles (2.6 percent) and 521 gas-fuelled vehicles (0.8 percent) sold.

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ZAGREB, October 22, 2019 - Croatia is going into the fight for an investment worth over a billion euro, which is how much German car maker Volkswagen plans to invest in a new factory, Večernji List daily said on Tuesday, citing sources at the Ministry of the Economy.

The Germans planned on building the factory in Turkey but ditched the plan over Ankara's military offensive in Syria, Večernji List says, adding that, according to well-informed sources, Croatia will be included in a new round of talks between Volkswagen and the interested countries, namely Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Volkswagen plans to produce 300,000 vehicles annually and employ 4,000 people in the new factory, the newspaper says.

The German company wanted to build the factory near Izmir, and the project was estimated at 1.3 billion euro. The plan was to begin the production of the Passat and the Skoda Superb in 2022 as the company seeks to relocate the production of the two models from its plants in Germany and the Czech Republic to produce electric vehicles there.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was so thrilled over Volkswagen's decision to build its factory in Turkey that he ordered that all government vehicles should be replaced with Passats, Večernji List said.

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ZAGREB, October 7, 2019 - A total of 51,337 new cars were sold in Croatia in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 2.5 percent on the same period last year when 50,073 vehicles were sold, according to data from the Promocija Plus market research agency.

Volkswagen was the most popular car brand, with 6,722 vehicles sold and a share in total car sales of 13.09 percent. It was followed by Renault (4,972 cars and a share of 9.69 percent), Opel (4,800 cars and a share of 9.35 percent), Skoda (4,793 cars and a share of 9.34 percent), and Dacia (3,099 cars and a share of 6.04 percent).

Also sold in the reported period were 1,310 Audis, 1,137 BMWs, 1,009 Mercedes and 80 Porsches.

The most sought-after car models were the Skoda Octavia (2,750 units sold), the Renault Clio (2,049), the VW Golf (1,890), the Suzuki Vitara (1,487) and the Renault Captur (1,446).

In September alone, 3,552 new cars were sold, up 22.2 percent year on year. The best-selling brands were Volkswagen (601 vehicles sold), Renault (394) and Skoda (362).

Of the total number of new cars sold from the start of January to the end of September, 31,548 or 61.5 percent were powered by petrol and 17,960 or 35 percent by diesel engines, 1,221 or 2.4 percent were hybrids, and 138 or 0.3 percent were electric vehicles.

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