Roxana Capata, Ford Romania Services: “We must continue to incentivize the transition to electric mobility”

“We are the first producer of a hybrid model in Romania, which accelerated our plans. We will continue with electric vehicles produced in Craiova. 3 new electric models were announced until 2024, including Transit Courier, Tourneo Courier, and Puma. The investment of 490 million euros makes this plan to be accelerated and implemented according to official statements.

We are going through a revolution in the automotive industry, and we are pioneers of this transition towards electrification. Diesel sales continue to decline, car manufacturers have started to give up models with internal combustion engines. We noticed a steep drop in the sales of diesel cars in the first 9 months of this year (15 percent of the total), a trend that we did not anticipate a few years ago. Electrified models had a share of over 60 percent of sales, and electric vehicles have an exponential growth of 400%, from year to year,” Roxana Capata, Managing Director, Ford Romania Services said during Green Mobility Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“The Rabla Plus program helps the consumer a lot in making the decision to purchase an electric vehicle. This exponential growth is not currently correlated with the development of the charging infrastructure, and I think that this is the first problem we will have in the coming years. We see very large gaps between EU countries in terms of electrification, but also charging infrastructure. The biggest challenge for the car industry and the local and European authorities is the development of the charging infrastructure, we must find solutions together.

We must continue to offer incentives for people and companies to make the transition to electric mobility.

The charging infrastructure is a must have so that the exponential growth of electric vehicles is supported. It is an effort that must be made by the private sector in collaboration with the authorities. We are working together with ACAROM to find solutions to reduce imports of second-hand cars in Romania and to support the renewal of the car fleet in the country.”

Full recording of the conference: