Romania is known for having Europe’s most generous incentives for electric vehicles. If you buy an EV in Romania today, you are eligible to get up to 45,000 RON ($11,150 / €9,100) from the government this can be cumulated with an additional 7,500 RON ($1,860 / €1,520) if you bring in an old car to be scrapped. This means that you can buy a brand new Tesla Model 3 Standard Range+, whose list price in Romania is €42,990 (VAT included).
Detracting the two incentives from that list price and adding the destination charge, we get €34,970. Does this mean Romania gets Europe’s cheapest Model 3? Well, based on research I did on the incentives in other EU countries, it would appear so, at least when it comes to initial purchase price. There are many European countries that offer rebates for EVs, while others offer tax reductions or exemptions.
Romania offers both financial incentives that drop the price of a new EV, and you are also exempt from paying yearly taxes on your EV and you get free parking in some cities. In the first four months of 2021, in spite of the pandemic and lower new car sales, Romanians bought 59 percent more electric vehicles, although that’s not saying much because it’s still a number in the hundreds - maybe the cheap Dacia Spring will boost EV sales numbers further by the end of the year.
Tesla recently officially entered the Romanian market, opening its first official pop-up store in a mall in the country’s capital, Bucharest, as well as the first Supercharger in the same mall’s multistorey car park. There’s still no official Tesla service center, though, and Romanian Tesla owners still have to drive all the way to Vienna, in Austria, to have their cars serviced. One should open in Romania by the end of the year, though.
