Global Automotive Export Resource Guide | Page 78

finland

Finland, with a population of 5.5 million, had about 3.4 million passenger cars registered in 2017. In 2017, 118,583 passenger cars were sold in Finland, which is a 0.1 percent drop from 2016. Commercial vehicle market grew by 1.1 percent. (Source: International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers – www.oica.net). On September 1st, 2018, the EU wide introduction of the new emissions and fuel consumption measuring standard – WLTP - resulted in a dramatic increase in vehicle registrations in August 2018 (up with 13 percent).

Summary

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The average age of a car in 2017 was 12.3 years, as it in 2013 was 10.6 years. To renew the vehicle population, the Government introduced a wrecking reward experiment in 2015 – July 1st until Dec 31st - which boosted the sales. Due to the success, the wrecking reward was reintroduced again for Jan 1st until Aug 31st 2018 with a reward between €1500-2500 depending on the emissions. As car emissions keep decreasing and tax incomes decrease, the Finnish Government is looking for new ways to tax car owners.

Sales of new vehicles has still not recovered from the recession and sales of used personal vehicles has been relatively high, with the highest peak in 2010, but year 2017 close behind. The trend of buying a new vehicle has been more positive in the past few years and for 2018 the forecast for the sales of new personal vehicles shows 2,7 percent increase compared to 2017.

Finland is a forerunner on e-mobility. Finnish legislation allows the type of development and trial projects currently being carried out in Europe and the US to be implemented on Finnish public roads.

Finland doesn’t have any own car production but Valmet Automotive provides engineering, consulting and contract manufacturing services for different high-end car brands: Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW, Lamborghini, Bentley.

Capital:Helsinki

Population:5,513,130

GDP:USD 251.9 billion

Currency:Euro (€)

Language:Finnish, Swedish