2026 heat-pump brand shares in the Balkans: Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia

What the Balkan EPREL snapshot looks like

Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia are not broken out in the supplied EPREL market snapshot, so the registry corpus here does not record country-level model counts, manufacturer counts, brand shares, concentration ratios, refrigerant splits, SCOP averages or noise averages for Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia individually. That means the headline comparison implied by the title cannot be completed from this dataset alone.

What the corpus does provide is the wider European listing context against which those three markets would have to be read. Across the full EPREL heat-pump base, Househeating Pulse tracks 60,989 listed models from 777 manufacturers with an average SCOP of 4.55, average declared power of 9.3 kW, and average outdoor noise of 61.3 dB (market index; market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API). That wider base is heavily weighted toward air-water units at 30,452 models and air-air units at 21,065 models, while ground-water accounts for 213 and water-water for 31 (type_efficiency / EPREL Public API · type aggregation; market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API).

For country context outside EPREL listings, the corpus includes energy and climate indicators for Croatia and Slovenia, but not Serbia. Croatia is tagged as a warmer climate-zone market with household electricity at €0.1658/kWh, gas at €0.0543/kWh, 2,957.86 heating degree days, and grid intensity of 134 gCO₂/kWh (country_compare / Eurostat · NASA POWER · EEA · Househeating Pulse subsidy register). Slovenia is tagged average climate with electricity at €0.2121/kWh, gas at €0.0871/kWh, 3,314.5 heating degree days, and 207 gCO₂/kWh grid intensity (country_compare / Eurostat · NASA POWER · EEA · Househeating Pulse subsidy register). The country table does not include Serbia, so no parallel claim can be made there.

That matters because this piece can still say something useful: the Balkan picture visible in this corpus is less a direct country ranking than a reminder that any reading of the live EPREL catalog for Southeast Europe sits inside a very concentrated European manufacturer universe, with a narrow refrigerant base and modest variation in average efficiency between dominant brands.

Who leads by model count in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia

The corpus does not provide country-level brand tables for Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia, so it is not possible to state which brand leads each of those three markets by model count, nor how far ahead first place is from second and third in each country.

At the all-EPREL level, however, the ranking is clear. Daikin Europe N.V. leads with 14,668 models and 24.05% share (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). Second is Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. with 5,575 models and 9.14% share (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). Third is JOHNSON CONTROLS HITACHI AIR CONDITIONING EUROPE SAS, SUCURSAL EN ESPAÑA with 5,207 models and 8.54% share (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation).

The numerical gaps are large at the top. Daikin stands 9,093 models ahead of Mitsubishi Electric and 9,461 models ahead of Johnson Controls Hitachi (derived directly from brand_share model counts / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). Mitsubishi Electric is 368 models ahead of Johnson Controls Hitachi (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation).

The next tier is led by Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH at 3,602 models and 5.91% share, followed by Ariston SpA at 2,618 models and 4.29% share (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). After that, the European listing base becomes much thinner by manufacturer, with ATLANTIC SOC FRANCAISE DEVELOP THERMIQUE on 1,516 models and 2.49%, and Vaillant GmbH on 1,195 models and 1.96% (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation).

For readers comparing local Balkan catalogs, that European ranking is best treated as a strategic backdrop rather than a Serbia/Croatia/Slovenia answer. The local split may differ, but the registry excerpt here cannot quantify it.

How concentrated each market is

Again, the registry excerpt does not include country-level concentration for Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia. No top-3 or top-5 cumulative shares are supplied for those markets.

The European base is concentrated enough to set expectations. The top three manufacturers account for 41.73% of all listed models: Daikin 24.05%, Mitsubishi Electric 9.14%, and Johnson Controls Hitachi 8.54% (sum of brand_share percentages / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). The top five account for 51.93% once Bosch 5.91% and Ariston 4.29% are added (sum of brand_share percentages / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation).

That means just five brands make up slightly more than half of the entire tracked European base of 60,989 models (market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API; brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). For market-structure work, that is the more defensible takeaway from this corpus than any unsupported claim about Balkan national concentration. Readers wanting the broader manufacturer context can use the manufacturer index and leaderboard hub.

Refrigerants: R32, R290 and the rest

The corpus does not provide refrigerant splits for Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia individually, so it cannot answer which of the three markets is most dependent on R32 or R290, nor how many R290 models each country contains.

What it does show is how narrow the declared refrigerant universe remains across the full EPREL base. Declared usage is dominated by R32 at 13,935 listings, followed by R410A at 1,896 and R290 at 537 (refrigerant_universe / IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes). All remaining declared codes are tiny, often single-digit or single-entry anomalies, including variant spellings such as R290A, R290a, R410a and R410 (refrigerant_universe / IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes).

Using the declared-usage counts supplied, R32 makes up 84.91% of declared refrigerant entries, R290 3.27%, and all other declared refrigerants together 11.83% (calculated from refrigerant_universe declared_usage total of 16,412 entries / IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes). If the R290 variants R290A and R290a are included with R290, propane-coded entries rise to 540 and 3.29% (refrigerant_universe / IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes).

The Househeating Pulse market snapshot separately reports a natural refrigerant share of 3.27% across the total tracked market (market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API). In the reference table, R290 is classified as a natural hydrocarbon with GWP 0, while R32 is an HFC with GWP 771 and a phase-out date in the table of 2027-01-01; R410A is listed at GWP 1924 with phase-out date 2025-01-01 (refrigerant_universe / IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes). For regulatory background, the governing framework is the EU F-gas regime under Regulation (EU) 2024/573.

So the cleanest reading available here is not “how the Balkans differ”, but that any Balkan submarket measured from this EPREL universe is likely being selected from a registry that is overwhelmingly R32-led, with propane still a small minority by listing count.

Efficiency and noise: do the leading brands cluster above or below average?

Country-level SCOP and noise averages for Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia are not present in the corpus, so the article cannot determine whether the leading brands in those specific markets sit above or below national averages.

At the European level, the overall average SCOP is 4.55 and average outdoor noise is 61.3 dB (market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API). Among the top five brands, only Bosch and Ariston sit above that average: Bosch posts 4.69 and Ariston 4.66 average SCOP (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). Daikin at 4.44, Mitsubishi Electric at 4.51, and Johnson Controls Hitachi at 4.18 are below the all-market average of 4.55 (brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation; market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API).

That point matters for any regional reading. The largest brand by listing count is not the highest-scoring on average SCOP. Nor is the European top three uniformly efficient relative to the market mean. A rough split emerges:

(brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation; market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API)

By product type, ground-water models average 4.77 SCOP and 58.8 dB, while air-water models average 4.54 SCOP and 59.8 dB; water-water stands out at 6.15 SCOP and 42.0 dB, though on only 31 models (type_efficiency / EPREL Public API · type aggregation). The registry does not give Balkan country type mixes here, so it is not possible to say whether Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia skew quieter or more efficient because of type composition. Readers wanting the extremes can compare top SCOP air-to-water models, top SCOP ground-source models, and the quietest heat pumps.

What the regional mix says about market structure in Southeast Europe

The defensible takeaway from this corpus is narrow but still useful. Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia cannot be ranked here as distinct EPREL markets because the supplied data does not expose them at country level. The registry does not record the country-by-country brand-share tables needed for that claim set.

What can be said is that any Southeast European snapshot drawn from this base is likely to reflect manufacturer strategy more than a broad, diverse local supply structure. The wider EPREL market has 777 manufacturers, but the top five already control 51.93% of listings and the top three 41.73% (market_index_snapshot / Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API; brand_share / EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation). That is a concentrated listing environment before any national filtering begins.

The refrigerant picture is similarly strategic. Declared entries are dominated by R32 at 84.91%, while propane-coded entries are only 3.29% even when spelling variants are merged (refrigerant_universe / IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes). In other words, if a Balkan market appears unusually propane-heavy or unusually conservative on legacy fluorinated refrigerants, that would be notable precisely because the wider EPREL pool is so heavily centered on one refrigerant family. Readers can inspect the underlying refrigerant options in the refrigerants reference and browse all R290 listings.

Efficiency signals also argue against simple “premium versus cheap” shorthand. The largest European listing brands are not uniformly above-average on SCOP, and the corpus contains no price field at all, so the registry does not support claims that Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia skew cheaper. Nor does it support a direct Balkan quietness ranking. What it does support is a more restrained interpretation: the regional mix, if isolated, should be read first as a subset of a concentrated European supplier base with dominant R32 usage and only selective penetration of low-GWP natural refrigerants.

For methodological details on how Househeating Pulse builds these cuts from EPREL, see the methodology notes and the 32-country comparison dashboard. For the raw market baseline behind this article, the most relevant internal reference remains the Market Index snapshot.

Sources

• EPREL Public API · brand-share aggregation — snapshot 2026-06-13
• IPCC AR6 GWP table; EU Reg. 2024/573 phase-out schedule; EPREL declared codes — snapshot 2026-06-13
• Househeating Pulse · Market Index v1, computed from EPREL Public API — snapshot 2026-06-13
• EPREL Public API · type aggregation — snapshot 2026-06-13
• Eurostat · NASA POWER · EEA · Househeating Pulse subsidy register — snapshot 2026-06-13
• probe failed — data unavailable (brand_detail) — no snapshot date supplied

Continue reading

• Heat pump market index — Start from the wider European listing baseline before drilling into national or brand-level shifts.
• Refrigerants guide — A practical reference for R32, R290 and other declared EPREL refrigerants in current circulation.
• SCOP and efficiency guide — A short refresher on how seasonal efficiency metrics differ across heat-pump types.
• Country comparison guide — Use the cross-country dashboard context to place Croatia and Slovenia alongside other EU markets.