State Enterprise Regitra reports a 17.6% vehicle registration increase

Last year (2010), State Enterprise Regitra registered 161,253 passenger vehicles (class M1). It is by 17.6% more compared to 2009 (137,095 registered passenger vehicles).

Out of the passenger vehicles registered in Lithuania, 7,467 were new and 153,786 were used vehicles (i.e., vehicles with prior registration in a foreign country). Compared to 2009, an increase in the registration of used vehicles in 2010 made up 18.5%, being considerably higher than registration of new vehicles (only 2.2% increase).

Legal persons accounted for most of registered new passenger vehicles (86%, 6,456 vehicles), including about one-fourth of vehicles registered by the providers of leasing services. Only 14% of new vehicles (1,011 vehicles) were registered by natural persons.

Natural persons accounted for most of used car registrations (72%), leaving the rest 28% to legal persons.

Most of imported used passenger vehicles that were registered in Lithuania last year had been brought in from Germany (38%, compared to 36% in 2009). France was ranked the second by this indicator (16%), followed by Italy (15 proc.) and Belgium (10%), which were the third and the fourth largest importers respectively.

With regard to imported vehicle models acquiring the first registration in Lithuania, last year the first place by popularity was retained by Volkswagen Passat, same as in 2009. The number of registered Volkswagen Passat passenger cars was 12,133. Volkswagen Golf and Opel Astra vehicles were ranked the second by popularity (7,028 and 6,818 registrations, respectively).

As for new cars, Peugeot 3008, Nissan Qashqai and Subaru Legacy accounted for the most of vehicle models registered in Lithuania in 2010 (455, 386 and 368, respectively).

In 2010 increase in the export of cars registered in Lithuania made up 24.3%, as compared to 2009, and totalled 28,940 in 2010. Most of cars were exported to Russia (7,013), Kazakhstan (3,685) and Belarus (3,441).