Automotive industry in Romania

Much of the Romanian manufacturing industry consists of branch plants of foreign firms, though there are some important domestic manufacturers, such as Automobile Dacia, Ford Romania, Roman Braşov and Igero. In 2013, some 410,997 automobiles were produced in Romania, up from 78,165 in 2000.

During the Communist period, Romania was one of the largest automobile producers in Central and Eastern Europe, however the industry declined after the 1989 revolution. Previously, other domestic manufacturers such as Tractorul Braşov, ARO and Oltcit existed, however they eventually went bankrupt due to botched privatization in the 1990s. Since 1990, several foreign companies, including Mercedes, Audi, Hyundai, Volvo, Toyota, and Peugeot, expressed interest in opening branch plants in Romania. In 2014, the Romanian automotive industry ranks fifth in Central and Eastern Europe, behind that of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.

Ford bought the Automobile Craiova plant for $57 million, planning to produce automobiles at a rate of over 300,000 units a year by 2010. Ford said it would invest €675 million (US$923 million) in the former Daewoo car factory and that it would buy supplies from the Romanian market worth €1 billion (US$1.39 billion). In September 2009, the company began to assemble the Ford Transit Connect in Craiova, and in 2012, production of the new Ford B-Max was started.

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Wikipedia