Economic turnarounds, energy crisis and component shortages shook the car market in 2022

– registrations remained at a historic low

The year 2022 was exceptional for the car market with its many twists and turns. The prolonged shortages in many components slowed down the number of registrations. especially in the passenger car market, the number of registrations remained at a historic low. During the autumn and early winter, gloomy economic outlook, rising interest rates and inflation as well as weakened purchasing power cut down orders for new cars. The market for used passenger cars also fell short of recent years. The drop in truck registrations was clearly smaller, and the bus market recovered notably from the exceptional collapse during the pandemic.

First registrations of passenger cars and vans remained exceptionally low

A total of 81,698 new passenger cars were registered in 2022, a drop of 17.0% from in the previous year. In December, 6,186 new passenger cars were registered. The number is 5.3% lower than that of December 2021 and 16.7% lower than the five-year average for December.

The number of registrations of passenger cars is exceptionally low – in fact, it is the lowest since 1995, when slightly under 80,000 new passenger cars were registered. On average, around 120,000 new cars have been first registered annually since 2000. In 2021 and 2022, the order backlog for new cars has swelled and multiplied due to production difficulties. The production situation of cars, overshadowed by the shortage of components, did not yet allow the strong order backlog to clear to its normal level last year.

A total of 11,192 new vans were registered in 2022, a drop of 13.2% from 2021. In December, 1,061 new vans were registered. The number is 11.8% higher than in December 2021, but 5.6% lower than the five-year average number of registrations in December. In the 2000s, an average of 13,300 vans have been registered every year. The number of registered vans also dropped below 11,000 during the recession of the early 2010s. The order backlog for vans is also many times higher than normal, and the main reasons for the low number of registrations are a shortage of components and production bottlenecks.

Used car sales slowed down clearly last year

Sales of used passenger cars and vans took a downturn in 2022 after two years of growth. A total of around 570,000 passenger cars circulated in used car sales, which is around 11% fewer than in 2021. Around 290,000 used passenger cars were sold through car dealerships, a decline of around 9.5% from 2021. The year 2022 differed clearly from previous years, as used car sales of dealerships increased year-over-year by around 4.7% in 2021 and around 2.9% in 2020.

“The downturn in demand has caused used car prices to fall during the autumn and winter. However, turnaround times have not significantly increased from the previous year. The availability and market selection of used cars is good at the moment, compared to what was at worst a shortage of used cars in 2021,” says Pekka Rissa, Executive Director of the Finnish Central Organisation for Motor Trades and Repairs AKL.

Fluctuation in demand for electric cars record high in 2022

In 2022, the share of fully electric cars of first-time passenger car registrations increased to around 17.8%, from just 10.3% in 2021. The share of plug-in hybrids is levelling off at around one-fifth of all first registrations, accounting for around 19.8% of registrations in 2022 and around 20.5% in 2021.

The share of non-plug-in hybrid powered cars was nearly 32% in 2022. In 2022, the share of conventional petrol vehicles was around 23.6% and that of diesel vehicles 6.6% of first registrations. If diesel-powered light hybrids are also included in the share of diesel cars, the share of diesel cars increases to about 8.6% of passenger car registrations.

In December, a record number of fully electric cars were first registered in Finland, accounting for nearly 30% of all registrations. In recent years, there has been a clear spike in registrations of fully electric vehicles at the turn of the year, as vehicle manufacturers seek to lower the average emissions of cars they place on the market by rushing production and deliveries before the end of the year. In addition, the large order backlog includes many fully electric vehicles ordered last year and this year that are waiting delivery.

The demand for electric cars grew rapidly in Finland during autumn 2021 and early 2022. The growth in demand was boosted by new electric vehicle ranges, purchase incentives and the rapidly rising prices of petrol and diesel.

"During autumn of 2022, the demand for electric vehicles declined to about one quarter of customer orders, from the nearly 40% of all orders in the summer. The main reason for the levelling out in demand for fully electric vehicles is the record hikes in electricity prices and the end of subsidies for electric car buyers," says Tero Kallio, Executive Director of Autotuojat ja -teollisuus ry.

Heavy-duty truck registrations on par with the previous year, with registrations of buses seeing long-awaited growth

A total of 3,341 trucks were registered for the first time in 2022, 5.5% less than in 2021. The number of heavy trucks weighing at least 16 tonnes registered was 2,420, which is nearly the same as in 2021. The number of light trucks weighing under 6 tonnes registered was 747, which is 15.7% less than in 2021. The number of registrations for medium-heavy trucks weighing 6 to 16 tonnes was only 174 or 22.3% less than in the previous year.

A total of 417 buses were registered in 2022. The number increased by 9.2% from 2021 but is still at a low level compared to the long-term average. In the long term, the pandemic reduced demand for charter and long-distance bus services in particular, and the majority of new vehicles have been acquired for local transport. Since 2000, an average of 500 new buses have been registered annually in Finland.

Further information

Statistics of new-registrations

New-registrations by fuel type

Tero Kallio, Managing Director, Association of Automobile Industry in Finland, Tel. +358 40 729 4513, tero.kallio@autotuojat.fi

Pekka Rissa, Managing Director, Finnish Central Organization for Motor Trade and Repairs, Tel. +358 500 417 300, pekka.rissa@akl.fi

The Finnish Information Centre of Automobile Sector is a service and information centre providing information of road transport, automobile trade and manufacturing, as well as the car repair and inspection industries and car recycling in Finland. Information Centre is a joint organisation of the Association of Automobile Industry in Finland and Finnish Central Organization for Motor Trades and Repairs.

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