Finnish Cars Market is still struggling in 2024. November sales totaled 6,132 (-4.4%) while YTD sales reached 51,230 (-17.2%), one of the worst performance in Europe. Despite a slight easing of declines in recent months, November marked the 12th consecutive month of year-on-year losses.
Market Trend and Outlook
Finland’s economy is expected to remain stagnant in 2024, with almost zero GDP growth, as domestic and external demand recover slowly. Inflation is projected to decrease to 1.4%, but a VAT hike in September 2024 will likely push it to 2.1% in 2025. The government deficit is set to rise to 3.4% in 2024 before falling below 3% in 2025 due to fiscal consolidation efforts. Public debt is forecast to increase, exceeding 80% of GDP by 2024, but labor market tightness and improving economic activity may stabilize unemployment and boost growth by 2025.
New car passenger sales in November 2024 have been 6,132 (-4.4%) marking the 12th consecutive negative month. YTD sales reached 65,003 (-17.2%), one of the worst performance in Europe.
Looking at cumulative data up to November 2024 brand-wise, the leader was still Toyota with 11,666 sales (-11.8%), followed by Volvo -up 2 spot- at 7,255 (+7.8%), Skoda -down 1 spot- at 6,432 (-19.6%) and Volkswagen -down 1 spot- with 5,567 units sold (-17.7%).
Kia ranked 5th with 5,000 sales (-18.9%), followed by BMW -up 2 spots- with 3,220 registrations (-27.5%), Tesla -down 1 spot- at 3,100 new sales (-43.2%) and Mercedes -down 1 spot- with 3,075 sales (-32.1%).
Nissan -up 1 spot- ranked into 9th position with 2,881 sales (+15%), followed by Hyundai -up 3 spots- closing the top 10 with 2,840 new car registrations (+27.2%).
Looking at best selling models the Toyota Corolla Sedan was still the leader despite falling 27.8% in year-on-year sales, followed by the Toyota Yaris Cross up 5 spots (+40.2%).
Medium-Term Market Trend
The Finnish car market has remained quite stable in the passed decade with a main exception in the last 3 years. In fact after a 14.6% growth in 2011 the market remained between a low of 99,832 in 2013 and a peak of 116,743 in 2018 until the arrival of the pandemic.
In March 2020 the Covid-virus arrived in Europe causing many economies to shut down temporarily. The Finnish market suffered a 15.3% loss reaching 93,103 sales by the end of 2020, the lowest levels of the decade.
2021 presented a year of slight recovery, with sales remaining nearly unvaried compared to the previous year. While in 2022 the market lost 16.2% in volume, with cumulative sales reaching 80,061.
A combination of factors are behind the current industry struggle: the disruption in the global supply chain caused by a lack of raw materials, in particular for the production of microchips and Governments push towards Evs, with Scandinavian countries being ahead of this wave.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturer Groups, and top 10 Models.
