A total of 9,763 new passenger cars were sold in Croatia in the first three months of 2022, down by 7.2 percent from the same period in 2021, when 10,519 cars had been sold, according to data from the Promocija Plus market research agency.

The best-selling car brand was Skoda, with 1,068 cars sold and a 10.9 percent share in total sales. It was followed by Volkswagen (918 cars, 9.4 percent share), Kia (838 cars, 8.5 percent share), Toyota (642 cars, 6.6 percent share), and Hyundai (635 cars, 6.6 percent).

In March alone, 3,882 new vehicles were sold, a decrease of 6.8 percent compared with March 2021. Last month, the most popular car model was the Hyundai Tucson, with 125 units sold. It was followed by the Opel Mokka (121), the Kia XCeed (113) and the Dacia Sandero (107).

More than half of the vehicles sold — 4,987 or 51.1 percent — were fueled by petrol. The number of diesel cars continued to fall rapidly, with 1,920 units sold, or 19.7 percent of total sales, while the number of hybrid vehicles sold increased to 2,231, accounting for 22.9 percent of total sales. 375 of the cars sold were powered by natural gas (3.8 percent) and 250 were electric cars (2.6 percent).