Last year, 60,041 new cars were sold in Croatia, which is 18.3 percent more than the year earlier, when 50,769 vehicles were sold, according to the Ministry of Interior’s data gathered by the Promocija Plus agency. In December, buyers bought 2,412 vehicles, up 12.4 percent from December 2017, reports tportal.hr on January 8, 2019.
Most of the new cars were sold by Volkswagen – 8,932, with the share in total sales of 14.9 percent, followed by Renault with 5.805 vehicles and 9.7 percent, and Škoda with 5.293 units and 8.8 percent. Opel sold 5.212 vehicles and was in the fourth place (8.7 percent share), followed by Suzuki fifth (3.794, 6.3 percent share).
In addition, in 2018, Croatian citizens purchased 1,804 new Audis, 1,487 BMWs, 1,166 Mercedes and 85 Porsches. Among the more expensive brands, Croatians bought three Maseratis, one Ferraris and one Lotus, and even one Rolls-Royce.
However, the most popular models of the last year were somewhat cheaper, so Škoda Octavia was the best-selling car with 2,981 vehicles, followed by the popular Renault Clio (2,599) and the local favourite Volkswagen Golf, which sold 2,193 units to Croatians. The same producer is at the fourth place with Polo (2,162), and the top five list ends with Suzuki Vitara (1,720).
According to the fuel option, gasoline cars had a market share of 54.9 percent (32.940 vehicles), diesel accounted for 42.7 percent (25.618) of vehicles sold, and there were 834 hybrids sold, with a market share of 1.4 percent. Gas vehicles had the share in total sales of 0.8 percent (504), while electric cars came last, with 145 units sold and a market share of 0.2 percent.
Although the diesel engines are slowly losing their battle with gasoline, diesel cars are still more popular in the premium segment. For example, of all the Audis sold last year, 78.7 percent were with diesel engines, with the share rising to 87.2 percent for BMWs and 95.3 percent for Mercedes.
A third of new car sales – 35.9 percent or 21.566 units, was realized in the Zagreb area. The second place belongs to Požega-Slavonia County (4.634 vehicles and the share of 7.7%), followed by Split-Dalmatia County (4.596, 7,6%). The lowest number of cars, just 198 (0.3 percent share) was sold in Lika-Senj County.
More news on Croatia’s car industry can be found in the Business section.
Translated from tportal.hr.
