Albanians crazy after German cars

For January-March 2018, the total imported value of passenger transport vehicles reached 54.5m euros, an increase of 9.2% compared to the first quarter of last year and much higher than the first quarter of 2016.

This increase comes at a point when the decision to ban imports of old vehicles that do not meet pollution criteria is expected to take effect. Meanwhile, the growth of imports has also been strengthened by measures countries like Germany are taking against oil vehicles, pushing owners to sell them to Eastern European countries.

Germany also tops the list of countries of origin that have entered Albania, and circulation amounts to 25.4m euros. Germany is significantly the main partner, as only 9.6m euros of vehicles were imported from the second country to the list, Italy.

Meanwhile, if the third country was traditionally boiled by the United Kingdom, this time belongs to Switzerland, from which 2.5m euros were imported in value of vehicles. Britain fights with the United States for fourth place, and imports account for 2.2m euros and 2.2m euros respectively.

Banning vehicles with the right-wing wheel

The United States comes as a surprise to the list, as the value of imports has doubled year-on-year. For the same period a year ago, Albania imported only 1m euros of vehicles from across the Atlantic.

Countries closing the first decade of car origin are: The Czech Republic, Japan, South Korea, Canada and France.

Most imported vehicles are used, as Albania imports very little new vehicles. Data from the Association of Motorcraft Producers shows that in 2017, only 2.8m euros in new vehicles were sold in our country. /scan