Higher subsidies for electric cars

The Romanian government has decided to increase the amount of support granted for the purchase of electric cars, after halving it last year, which led to a severe contraction of the Romanian car market.

Sorin Iordan, 10.04.2025, 13:50

I’m LS with this commentary by Sorin Titus Iordan.

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March 2025 was the third consecutive month with very poor results for electric car registrations in Romania. Thus, although a 19.5% increase in the number of registrations was recorded in the previous month compared to the same period of 2024, the amount of fully electric cars decreased by almost 60%, and this segment reached a market share of only 2.7%, according to data from the General Directorate of Driving Licenses and Registrations. In this context, the Environment Minister, Mircea Fechet, announced that he had decided to increase the eco-ticket for the Electric Car Scrapping Program (Rabla Electric) to 37,000 lei, respectively 7,500 Euros. Last year, the value of this voucher was approximately 25,000 lei, approximately 5,000 Euros.

The minister has said that the government has decided to provide financing, this year, worth 10,000 lei (2,000 Euros) for the purchase of cars with conventional thermal engines, 12,000 lei (2,500 Euros) for hybrid cars and 15,000 lei (3,000 Euros) for plug-in hybrid ones. He has also showed that, starting this year, in Romania, only at the Ford plant in Craiova (south-west) three models of electric cars are produced. At the same time, Fechet has said that he wants a significant part of the Rabla Plus budget to no longer go outside the European Union, to countries like China, but to remain in the country. Overall, new vehicle registrations in Romania increased by 3.3% in March 2025 compared to March 2024, but decreased by 12.9% compared to February 2025. Electric cars, namely 100% electric and plug-in hybrids, as well as full hybrids, which also have electric propulsion without charging from an external source, have a market share of 25.6%, over 14 % more than the share held by diesel engines.

In the first three months of this year, the best-selling fully electric cars were the Dacia Spring, with over 1,000 units and a decrease of 17.2% compared to the same period of the previous year, the Tesla Model 3 with 162 units and the Leapmotor T03 with 132 units. The situation of electric car registrations in Romania is considered catastrophic for electromobility by the president of the Romanian Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Importers, Dan Vardie. He said that without increasing the value of the eco-ticket within the “Rabla” Program and without measures to ensure consumers predictability regarding this support, by 2030, Romania risks remaining in last place in the European Union in this area. The electric car market in Romania dropped by about 30% last year, after the value of the “Rabla” voucher for electric cars was reduced to 25,000 lei (5,000 Euros) from 50,000 lei (10,000 Euros) in 2023. (LS)