Dacia's chief: Romania's car industry could lose up to a quarter of its output and workforce. The brand's new models went to Slovenia and Turkey

Romania's automotive industry could lose twenty to twenty-five percent "of everything: revenue, people, production and so on" next year, warned Mihai Bordeanu, who heads Dacia's operations in Romania and southeastern Europe, on Wednesday. One of the reasons, he said, is the price of energy. According to him, it has doubled in Romania compared to the situation a few years ago, but the automaker "cannot double car prices," because it would fall out of the market. Reports from the event do not cite specific figures for the price of electricity. Pro TV ↗

He was speaking at a debate held by the Concordia employers' confederation on Romania's competitiveness, which took place at the time of negotiations on the European Union's future budget for 2028 to 2034. Pro TV ↗ Libertatea ↗

Two "lost matches"

Bordeanu gave two examples. "The good news is that Dacia will finally be making an electric car in Europe, not in China. The bad news is that it won't be in Romania, but in Slovenia," he said, according to the Agerpres agency. The second is the Dacia Striker, a compact C-segment car that will be manufactured in Turkey. "Those are two matches that Romania has lost." Pro TV ↗

Yet neither of those models had previously been manufactured in Romania. The Spring electric car used to come from China, and its new generation is now being produced by the Revoz plant in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, alongside the electric Renault Twingo. Novinky.cz ↗ Due to high demand, Revoz is introducing a second shift and wants to hire more than three hundred additional workers on top of its current 1,970 employees. RTV Slovenija ↗

The Striker is an entirely new model. The only place in the world where it will be manufactured is the Oyak Renault plant in Bursa, Turkey. In Europe it is expected to cost 25,000 to 30,000 euros, and sales in Turkey are set to begin in December. Hürriyet Daily News ↗

So Bordeanu is not talking about production that left Romania, but about new orders from the Renault group that the country did not win.

Renault and Ford could also manufacture elsewhere

"The Renault group and Ford Otosan can make cars in Romania, but they can just as well make them elsewhere," Bordeanu said. According to him, each company makes strategic decisions based on competitiveness and efficiency. Pro TV ↗

The daily Libertatea turned this into a headline saying Renault and Ford could leave Romania. Citing the outlet Economica.net, it also quotes Bordeanu as saying that if the country continues to lose competitiveness, "it cannot be ruled out" that Renault or Ford Otosan would move their operations to other countries. Libertatea ↗

However, Bordeanu speaks for Dacia, not for Ford. Ford Otosan announced on the same day that it would build a solar park with a capacity of 5.1 megawatts near its Craiova plant, at a cost of 36.45 million lei, whose electricity it will consume entirely itself. The Modernization Fund will contribute a non-repayable grant of 8.63 million lei. The plant has approximately 5,500 employees and manufactures the Ford Puma, the Transit Courier van, and the Tourneo Courier passenger vehicle, all also in electric versions. Pro TV ↗

Plants that stood idle in August due to lack of electricity

Bordeanu described the sector as strategic. According to his figures, it accounts for 14 percent of Romania's GDP and a third of exports, directly and indirectly employs 200,000 people, and Romania ranks sixth in Europe in car production. Pro TV ↗

However, production was already declining before his warning. According to the ACAROM association, cited by Pravda, Dacia and Ford Otosan produced a combined 247,972 vehicles in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year decrease of 12.7 percent. Pravda ↗

Then, on Monday, August 3, both automakers announced they would suspend production in Mioveni and Craiova until August 19. Romania did not have enough electricity due to drought and low water levels on the Danube, and acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan stated that day that the companies had voluntarily agreed to reduce consumption and had already cut 200 megawatts from the grid that morning. TASR ↗

Also read: Record-low Danube shut down a nuclear reactor in Romania. Hungary's Paks faces the same threat

What is being demanded, and from whom

Bordeanu is calling for a plan that would make energy in Romania more competitive, a more flexible labor market — also in light of laws currently being negotiated — and better infrastructure. He also wants a fleet renewal program, essentially an equivalent of a scrappage scheme. According to him, this has collapsed over the past two years and "we don't even know exactly when it will get going again." Pro TV ↗

According to him, action needs to be taken now, "not tomorrow, not the day after, not whenever this or that political setup ends up leading us." Ilie Bolojan's cabinet had already fallen on May 5 in a no-confidence vote. Al Jazeera ↗

A new government has not been formed since then. President Nicușor Dan convened the parliamentary parties for consultations on Thursday, September 17, after which he is expected to announce who he will task with forming a government. According to Digi24, the parties have not yet agreed on a majority that would support a new government. Digi24 ↗ Adevărul ↗

Also read: Romania remains without a government after another attempt: Veștea failed to win confidence as AUR walked out of the chamber

Why this matters to Slovakia

Slovakia has long ranked among the world leaders in car production per capita, and all of its automakers are foreign-owned. So the question of where the next model will be made is likewise decided, even for Slovak plants, at the headquarters of the parent groups, through the kind of country comparisons Bordeanu is talking about.

*Illustrative photo: The Dacia Bigster, manufactured at the Mioveni plant. Author Alexander Migl, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. The image has been resized.*