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Best sales prospects for US companies in the automotive sector will include:
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The shared services are slowly and carefully penetrating the Bulgarian market. Companies like Spark and UAB Ride share are offering shared e-cars for the biggest cities starting with the capital Sofia. The vehicles that are available so far are: VW e-up!, Nissan Leaf AC only, Nissan Leaf 24, Nissan Leaf 40, Hyundai Kona 40, Hyundai IONIQ 30, BMW i3, Nissan eNV 200 Cargo, Nissan eNV 200 Passenger, VW e-up! 36, Skoda CITIGO e iV. As of 2020 there are 158 charging stations in Sofia. Eldrive charging stations are free for all Spark users who have the opportunity to recharge their electric car in about three hours.
Autonomous Vehicles
Denmark has passed legislation that allows for SAE level 4 vehicles on the roads, as long as the user is easily able to switch to manual steering. Currently a few tests are being carried out with completely self-driving shuttle busses, but challenges exist in relation to approval processes for fully autonomous vehicles.
The sporting goods market in Finland consists of about 15 retail chains, each different in size and market strategy. Intersport Finland is currently the largest sporting goods retailer in Finland, followed by XXL Finland and Stadium Finland. The sporting goods market has profited from a shift in consumer fashion preferences towards sporting apparel and sports shoes. Wearing activewear is trendy in Finland, even when not necessarily participating in sport activities. Products such as textiles, sports electronics, and electric bicycles/scooters represent significant growth opportunities for the sporting goods market in Finland. The demand for certain specialized sporting goods is weather dependent, and in recent years Scandinavia's mild winters have resulted in a decline in demand for winter sporting equipment.
Furthermore, the sporting goods market in Finland has sustained an annual growth rate of approximately 2%, with revenue in the sports and outdoor segment expected to hit $322 million in 2020. Looking forward, the sporting goods market is expected to maintain an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020 – 2024) of 5.2%, resulting in a market volume of $395M by 2024. The average revenue per user currently amounts to $350.27, with user penetration at 16.6% in 2020 and is expected to increase to 23.7% by 2024. Recent estimates place the sporting goods market in Finland to around $1.24 million, having a quarter of the $5.28 million that makes up whole retail sales. (source:Statista)
eCommerce is well established in the sports market, and many of the major retailers are optimizing their operations through online sales channels. In a recent study from 2019 on the sporting goods users in Finland, the consumer gender demographics are quite even (male 54.3%, women 45.7%). In addition, income level did not have a significant effect on spending, as Finland does not have a noticeable wage disparity. While looking at adults over 18 years old purchasing sport related items, the largest consumer age group are 25-34 years old (26.77%) followed by 35-44 years old (26.27%). After that come the consumer groups of 45-54 years old (22.22%), 55-64 years old (15.66%) and lastly the 18-24 years old (9.09%). In the future, it will be interesting to see if these consumer age groups start to differ.
Finland
Summary