Former rally driver George Grigorescu has been appointed president of the Romanian Automotive Manufacturers and Importers Association (APIA), which represents car importers and manufacturers in Romania.

The car trade is a market of EUR 8 billion every year.

Grigorescu replaces lawyer Ernest Popovici, who stepped down after the scandal in which the Romanian car producer Dacia withdrew from APIA.

In February, Dacia and its affiliated company Renault Commercial announced that they would leave APIA. The conflict between the two parts stemmed from Romania's Cash-for-Bangers (Rabla) program. Dacia and Renault strongly supported the program, where the two brands record important sales, whereas several importers opposed the program.

APIA represents the importers of cars and car components, plus the car producer Ford. The association currently doesn’t have any representative of Dacia. These moved to ACAROM, another professional association that groups only producers of cars and car components.

editor@romania-insider.com