The auto sector remains the largest segment in all the national leasing markets; however, individual markets saw widely differing performance in 2015.

In Sweden, for example, passenger car NBV grew some 13% over 2014, although that increase only brought volume back to the level it had been in 2013. Meanwhile, the trend in Norway was rather the opposite, with passenger car NBV falling around 15% in 2015 compared with 2014, although 2014 seems to have been an unusual spike. The share of total leasing NBV held by passenger cars in Sweden was 33% in 2015, whilst market share in Norway slipped from that figure to nearer 28%.

In the Baltics, the vehicle sector is even more dominant. In Estonia, passenger cars held a 46% market share in 2015, despite leasing NBV declining 5% year on year. Growth in commercial vehicle leasing, however, was an impressive 25%, giving this segment 22% market share.

Norway leads in sales of ‘green’ vehicles

In Norway, total electric vehicle (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) new registrations grew over 70% in 2015 to around 34,000, making Norway the fourth largest EV market globally and the second largest in Europe after the Netherlands.

A total of just over 100,000 plug-in passenger cars were registered in the Nordic countries at the end of 2015, of which nearly 75,000 were registered in Norway, around 16,000 in Sweden and 8,000 in Denmark, but fewer than 1,500 in Finland (source: Denmark-based energy and ICT consultancy Insero).

Tax and other incentives continue to boost EV sales in Norway and incentives led to a surge in EV uptake in 2015 in Sweden and Denmark; however, only Norway looks set to maintain the level of exemptions through 2016 and the level of new registrations is subsequently expected to tail off in Sweden and Denmark.