Aftermarket Summary
The aged motor vehicle population of Finland offers both challenges and opportunities for the automotive aftermarket. The continuous technological development of new vehicles requires more and more technical expertise from automotive professionals. On the other hand, know-how is also needed on the repair of older vehicles in a country where the average age of the motor vehicle population is 12.3 years.
Official brand dealers and repair shops are higher rated by Finnish car owners due to their employees’ professional level. However, authorized dealers are still main service providers for this market due to their locations and a wider variety of brand selection. 67 percent of vehicles aged 2–6 years are serviced at authorized dealers. These authorized dealers are individual local service providers and are not part of any bigger company or franchising chain with multiple service stations. In the past years the aftermarket companies have expanded into used vehicle imports. There would be opportunities for aftermarket franchising or non-franchising companies.
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Best Prospects for U.S. Exports
Tiina Ketelä-Juvonen
U.S. Embassy Helsinki, Finland
Electric Vehicles Market
The number of electric vehicles in Finland is growing slowly because prices of electric cars is still much higher than that of combustion engine cars. The modern technology is treated with caution by many Finns. The lack of charging stations, limited driving range during winter season, lack of enough incentives contributes a barrier from switching to electric cars.
Up until March 2018, there has been over 5300 fully electric cars registered and used in Finland. Since 2007, the proportion of vehicles with alternative driving power has increased by an
average of 50% each year. In 2017, the number went up 113% compared to that of 2016. High percentages can be explained with low vehicle numbers as total.
In promotion of the sales and use of electrically chargeable cars in Finland, the government has adopted favorable tax regulation on energy efficient vehicles, which states that pure electric vehicles pay the minimum rate (5%) of the CO2-based registration tax. As of October 2016, Finnish government had set the goal of 250,000 plug-in cars and 50,000 biogas cars on the road by 2030 to comply with the 2015 Paris Agreement. As a result, the number of fully electric cars sold has gone from 292 in 2016 to 555 by the end of 2017. Finnish government further encourages the purchasing of electric cars by offering a
best prospects