Romanian car maker Dacia increases its market share as the local car market sees strong recovery.

New car sales increased by 30% in May compared to April, reaching almost 10,000 units, according to data released by the Romanian Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA). The last month with more than 10,000 new cars sold in Romania was November 2011.

Companies were the main driver for the car sales increase, as they stood for 81% of the new car purchases in May.

Opel and Hyundai more than doubled their sales in May compared to the previous month while Toyota, Renault and Volkswagen increased sales by more than half. Dacia’s sales went up by 27%, coming close to 4,000 units.

In the first five months of the year, Dacia’s sales in Romania went up by 35% (to 13,290 units) outpacing the overall market growth rate, which stood at almost 18%. More than 35,500 cars were sold during this period.

Dacia Logan was the best-selling model in the first five months of 2015, with almost 6,300 units, 40% more than in the same period of 2014. Dacia Duster had a 60% increase in sales, to over 2,700, despite a slight decline in May. Dacia Sandero was the third model by sales, with almost 2,400 units (up 17% year-on-year), followed by Skoda Octavia, Dacia Logan MCV and Skoda Rapid.

Dacia reached a 37.4% market share in the first five months, compared to a 32.5% market share overall in 2014. Volkswagen was second, with 9.5% of the total units sold (3,377), and Skoda came third, with 9.2% (3,272). Ford and Renault completed the top 5.

Romania’s car production in the first five months was over 177,600 units, up by almost 1% compared to the same period of 2014. Dacia produced 155,900 cars while Ford made 21,700. Some 159,000 cars went to export (almost 90%) of the output.

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Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com