Ro — Autodata

Andreea nodded. “I pulled the fiscal incentive data. From July, the Rabla Plus program’s budget for EVs ran out faster than ever—by mid-August. Meanwhile, the ‘Rabla for Used Cars’ (Rabla Clasic) still has funds, but it favors local trade-ins, not direct imports.”

By noon, the report was published. By 6 p.m., it was cited by two automotive blogs and a financial news site.

That was the missing piece.

The next morning, Adrian received an email from a dealership group in Brașov. The subject line read: “We just dropped prices on 2018 diesels and added a hybrid test-drive event. Thank you for the data.”

Adrian Ionescu, a data analyst at AutoData RO , stared at his screen in Bucharest. The dashboard before him wasn’t just numbers—it was the circulatory system of Romania’s car market. It was late October, and his team was preparing the quarterly “State of the Fleet” report.

The average age of imported used cars had risen to 12.4 years, while their average declared value for tax purposes had dropped by 9%. That meant more older, more polluting cars entering a country struggling with air quality in its major cities.