Romania's car production could go up by as much as 75 percent in 2014 compared to last year, to around 520,000 units produced locally, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This would be the third fastest growth pace in Central and Eastern Europe.

Romania will become the sixth biggest car producer in the region by 2014, following Russia, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The country will outrun Hungary, Ukraine and Slovenia, PwC also foresees.

“We expect a strong increase pace for the Romanian car industry in the following five years, as the recent investments in the car plant in Craiova will become fully operational, and the production capacity in Pitesti will grow to cater the increasing demand for new models,” says Ionut Simioni, the PwC Romania head for the automotive segment.

The local car production grew in Romania by 24.7 percent in the first seven months of the year, to 219,656 units. Automobile Dacia produced the bulk of it – 215,463 vehicles, while Ford, 4,178 units.