New passenger car registrations in Croatia increased by 25% y/y to 17,023 in January-April, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. In April alone, registrations rose by 30% y/y to 6,213.
Passenger car sales in Croatia have been on an upward trend since 2015 in parallel with increasing private consumption and private demand. In 2017, private consumption is also expected to stay strong thanks to expectations of a favourable tourism season.
The growth in new car registrations in Croatia outstripped fellow EU member states. Rapid growth was also reported in fellow Southeast European countries Romania (22.3%) and Bulgaria (20%).
In 2016, Croatia outperformed the EU average growth in car registration. New passenger car registrations in Croatia rose by 24% y/y to 43,015 units in 2016 while across the union 14.6mn new passenger cars were registered, up 7% y/y.
Data from the Promocija Plus market research agency has also shown that passenger car sales in Croatia rose by 23% y/y to 44,106 units in 2016. Volkswagen was the market leader in Croatia last year with a total of 6,445 units of passenger car sales, followed by Opel with 4,135 units and Renault with 3,715 units.
Passenger Car Registrations | |||
Croatia | EU | share | |
Jan-Apr/17 | 17,023 | 5,332,854 | 0.32% |
Jan-Apr/16 | 13,585 | 5,093,943 | 0.27% |
y/y | 25.31% | 4.69% | - |
2016 | 43,015 | 14,641,356 | 0.29% |
2015 | 34,820 | 13,713,800 | 0.25% |
y/y | 23.50% | 6.80% | - |
source: acea |