Croatians Love These Cars: One German Brand Leads by a Wide Margin

Croatia’s vehicle fleet continued to grow in 2025, and one German brand remained far ahead of the competition. Volkswagen topped the rankings with 332,907 registered passenger vehicles, while the Volkswagen Golf led all individual models with 133,485 cars on Croatian roads.

The State Statistics Office recorded 2,058,313 registered passenger vehicles at the end of 2025, 3.6% more than a year earlier. Across all road-vehicle categories, the total reached 2,768,475, an increase of 3.9%.

Passenger cars made up the largest share, but Croatia also had 250,689 trucks, 156,452 agricultural tractors, 122,559 motorcycles and 70,310 mopeds. The fleet included 46,754 trailers, 19,602 special vehicles, 19,504 semitrailers, 18,047 road tractors and 6,245 buses.

A total of 219,402 road vehicles received their first registration in Croatia during 2025, up 2.8% from 2024. Passenger cars accounted for 159,093 of those registrations, an increase of 3.1%. The figure includes used vehicles registered in Croatia for the first time, so it does not represent only new-car sales.

First registrations rose in most categories. Bus registrations increased by 29%, trailers by 10% and agricultural tractors by 6.2%. Motorcycle registrations rose 3%, while truck registrations edged up 0.3%. Mopeds fell 10%, special vehicles declined 4.7%, semitrailers 1% and road tractors 0.8%.

Renault ranked second among brands with 194,096 vehicles, followed by Opel with 170,364, Škoda with 129,971 and Peugeot with 117,045. Audi, BMW, Ford, Citroën and Mercedes completed the top 10. Among models, the Opel Astra, Renault Clio, Škoda Octavia and Volkswagen Passat followed the Golf. Data for the first half of 2026 showed 84,409 first registrations of passenger cars, including 44,012 new and 40,397 used vehicles, compared with 87,624 in the same period of 2025.