April 13 (SeeNews) - The Romanian unit of Ford Motor Company said on Tuesday that its market share rose by 3.94 percentage points to 10.88% during the first three months of 2021, with the Puma model being its best selling car on the local market.
The increase in market share came amid a 22% annual drop in vehicle registrations on the Romanian market in the first quarter, to 33,000 units, Ford Romania said in a press release.
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In the first quarter of 2021, 648 Ford Puma cars were registered, compared to 94 in the same period of 2020. The Puma model, which is manufactured at Ford's plant in Craiova, in southern Romania, is now second best sold car on the local mini utility segment, with a 14.45% market share, the company added.
Ford started producing the Puma crossover model in Craiova in October 2019, following a 200 million euro ($238 million) investment in the assembly line.
During the January-March period, Ford remained the leader of the Romanian commercial vehicle market with 835 units registered and a market share of 15.7%, up by 0.3 percentage points compared to the same period last year, the company said.
Ford entered Romania in March 2008 when it wrapped up the acquisition of a 72.4% stake in Automobile Craiova, the sole owner of car maker and distributor Daewoo Automobile Romania. The auto manufacturer currently has over 6,000 employees in Romania.
In July 2020, Ford announced that is investing $30 million in a new pressing line at the plant in Craiova, in order to produce a wider range of components, which are being brought from other Ford factories in Europe at present.
($= 0.8401 euro)
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