Car market executive: Eastern markets rebound below expectations

The Romanian car market will revert to the 2007-2008 volumes after 2014, when the European market will also top 13.5 million cars, estimates Allan Rushforth, vice-president with Hyundai Motor Europe.
Hyundai and Dacia were the car brands that posted the highest sales increases on European markets, both in 2009, and in the first half of this year, with the two brands benefiting from the launch of old car scrappage schemes (Rabla), which allowed them to widen their market shares.
Just like Dacia, which launched the Duster SUV as soon as car scrappage schemes ended, Hyundai also presented the ix35 crossover. In Romania, the cheapest ix35 starts from 18,590 euros VAT included, while a top full-option Duster version reaches 18,716 euros.
“We do not see Dacia Duster as a rival for ix35. Europe is not a single country, and there implicitly are a lot of client types,” Rushforth said.
The South Korean brand’s registrations rose by 4.3% in the first nine months of this year, to over 274,600 cars, according to ACEA statistics.
“The recovery rate of Eastern markets will be weaker than we would like. East-European governments have trouble cutting the deficit and costs (…)”, said Rushforth.