Bulgaria July 2015: Dacia Dokker and Skoda Octavia on top

The Dacia Dokker is the best-selling nameplate in Bulgaria in 2014.

* See the Top 30 All-brands and Top 170 All-models by clicking on the title *

The Bulgarian new car market is up 30% year-on-year in July to 2.561 registrations, lifting the year-to-date total to an estimated 17.168 units, up 14% on 2014. Recently I wrote about the re-export practices of carmakers in a lot of Eastern European country (see STRATEGY: Renault champion of “fake” registrations), and Bulgaria is the poster child of re-exports. Our local correspondent Kaloyan Jelev estimate 22-24% of total new car sales in the country are re-exported towards other European Union countries. On top of this, Bulgaria does not make new registration data public, BSCB being the only website to exclusively publish it. This means every country manager can claim his brand is first in market, with Renault-Nissan currently claiming they hold 30% of the Bulgarian market (our data says 27%), however roughly half are directly re-exported, making the group the biggest re-export culprit in the country.

Locally assembled, the Great Wall Steed ranks 10th in Bulgaria this month.

In fact, the study of the best-selling brands and cars in Bulgaria isn’t so much showing its consumers’ tastes, rather which manufacturers and models are most successful at being re-exported. In this context, Dacia leads the brands ranking with 10.9% above Renault (10.2%), Skoda (9.8%), Volkswagen (8.9%) and Kia (7.3%). After two months of Renault Captur domination, the Dacia Dokker reclaims the pole position it has been holding for the past two years with 5.4% share above the Skoda Octavia at 4% and the Renault Clio at 3.6%. The Kia Sportage surges 13 spots on June to #4, the VW Passat up 4 to #8 with 57 deliveries (very difficult to imagine more than 10 being “real” sales), the locally assembled Great Wall Steed holds its spot inside the Top 10 at #10, the Toyota RAV4 is up 24 ranks to #14, the Skoda Superb up 6 to #17, Peugeot 2008 up 38 to #22 and the Renault Fluence up 46 to #25.

Previous month: Bulgaria June 2015: Renault Captur confirms leadership

One year ago: Bulgaria July 2014: Ford Fiesta and Nissan Qashqai in control

Full July 2015 Top 30 All-brands and Top 170 All-models below.