The coronavirus cut down the sales of new cars in Finland sharply in 2020

– first registrations of new cars remained at around 15 per cent from the previous year’s level

First registrations of passenger cars dropped to 96,000

A total of 96,415 new passenger cars were registered in 2020, which is 15.6 per cent less than in 2019. In the spring, the coronavirus situation collapsed the order backlog of new cars, and the gap created in the spring could no longer be closed during the rest of the year. In the 2000s, the number of first registrations a year has only been smaller than this after the financial crisis in 2009, when the number of first registrations of new cars remained at around 91,000 passenger cars.

A total of 8,132 passenger cars were registered in December, which is 1.0 per cent less than in December 2019. The number of registrations levelled off slightly in the last few months of the year.

”The automotive industry expects that first registrations of new cars will total approximately 106,000 in 2021, and even that would be well below the long-term average. An average of 121,000 new passenger cars a year were registered between 2000 and 2020,” says Pekka Rissa, CEO of the Finnish Central Organisation for Motor Trade and Repairs.

In 2020, the biggest changes in the market for new cars were not only the decrease in demand caused by the coronavirus, but also the rapid growth in demand for rechargeable cars. Last year, already 18.1 per cent of first-time registered passenger cars were externally rechargeable. The share of rechargeable hybrids grew from around 5.2 per cent in 2019 to as much as 13.7 per cent. The share of full electric cars in first registrations leapt to 4.4 per cent, compared to only 1.7 per cent of the registrations in 2019. The share of non-rechargeable hybrids, i.e. various self-charging full and light hybrid cars, also grew clearly – altogether 19.4 per cent of first-time registered passenger cars were non-rechargeable hybrids in 2020, while their share remained at 13.6 per cent in the previous year.

The share of rechargeable cars increased especially in December, when they accounted for as much as 31.5 per cent of all first registrations.

”The share of electric vehicles is expected to level off in the early months of the year, as in December their number was boosted by the CO2 emission targets set for manufacturers. The target set for manufacturers for 2020 for all passenger cars first registered in the EU is on average 95 g/km as measured using the previous NEDC measurement method. Manufacturers gained an advantage from electric vehicles in the calculations especially in 2020, as each car first registered last year with emissions below 50 g/km is multiplied by two in emission monitoring. This year, the calculation factor will be reduced to 1.67,” says Tero Kallio, CEO of the Association of Auto Industry in Finland.

Despite the coronavirus situation, the sales of used passenger cars was keen. Trade in used cars grew by 1.4 per cent compared to 2019, even though the coronavirus situation generally cut down demand for cars and the traffic volumes of passenger cars. In 2020, the total volume of trade in used passenger cars was around 645,000, of which consumer-to-consumer transactions accounted for around 47 per cent.

Approximately 12,800 vans were first registered in 2020

Demand for vans and small trucks recovered slightly faster than that for passenger cars and heavy trucks. A total of 12,842 new vans were registered in 2020, which is 12.7 per cent less than in 2019. First registrations of vans already began to grow slightly during the autumn, compared to the five-year average. A total of 1,340 new vans were first registered in December, which is 19.7 per cent more than in December 2019. In 2021, first registrations of vans are expected to remain at approximately 13,000.

A total of 871 trucks weighing less than 6 tons were first registered in 2020, which is 4.2 per cent more than in 2019.

In truck sales, the coronavirus shows with a longer delay than in demand for vans

A total of 3,430 new trucks were registered in all weight classes in 2020, which is 14.7 per cent less than in 2019. The coronavirus crisis reduced the demand for the heaviest trucks the most. The demand for transports decreased clearly as a result of the coronavirus crisis, with the exception of the trade sector. A total of 2,317 heavy trucks weighing more than 16 tons were first registered, which is 20.4 per cent of the registration volume in 2019. First-time registrations of medium-sized trucks of 6 to 16 tonnes totalled 242, which is 11.4 per cent less than in 2019.

Coronavirus situation suspended bus sales

A total of 284 new buses were registered in 2020, which is 52 per cent less than in 2019. A total of 127 small buses with a total mass of less 8 tons were and 157 buses with a total mass of more than 8 tons were registered.

The demand for new buses has remained small, as the coronavirus situation has reduced the number of passengers travelling by long-distance public transport to a fraction of normal demand and no major competitive tendering rounds for public transport in urban areas were arranged in 2020.

Further information

Registration statistics from December

Statistics of fuel types of new registrations

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.