Compact cars still sell the most in Estonia with market share reaching a bit over a third. Even so, these past years crossovers have been coming strong, beating boom-times levels.
Estonia – ever the Crossover Country
26th June 2014, 14:56
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«Surprisingly, it was during the recession that SUVs started to gain popularity and market share, when forced and exceedingly rational decisions were the rule for buying a car,» noted Arno Sillat, head of Estonian car sellers union AMTEL.
He added that, as compared to 2008, percentage of SUVs in new car sales has grown by 16.3 percent to 29 percent. At that, the growth engine is private persons – according to AMTEL data, SUVs possessed 36 percent of market share among private car purchases, in fist quarter – while company cars lagged behind at 25 percent.
Jeep joys
According to Mr Sillat, success of crossovers is their universality, as well as Estonia’s bad roads and lousy maintenance thereof in winter time. Also, fuel consumption gap between SUVs and the mightier saloons has by now shrunk to be rather small.
«A SUV allows one to haul folks and lots of luggage, while promising a pass through hard terrain like the countryside or roads not cleaned in winter. A crossover will also last longer without repair, considering our summertime road condition,» said Mr Sillat, adding that «crossoverisation» is also boosted by suburbanisation.
«In product development, carmakers have taken huge strides forward. Thereby, crossover comfort is almost at the usual car level. Considering the practicality of an Estonian, they go for the multiple-use and good-to-drive wheels,» said Eneli Ponkin, marketing manager at Honda Baltic.
Swedbank car sector chief Marko Kiisa mentioned the impact of used car market cleanup by the state.
«I don’t think crossovers are in because of the tax holes being closed; but surely it will have an impact long term – in favour of new vehicles. In other words: many a man might opt for a new [Honda] CR-V, rather than a used «Lithuanian» [Audi] A6; and the trend seems to be accelerating,» said Mr Kiisa.
Total stability
Total sales of passenger cars have remains steady at about 20,000 in Estonia, for these past years, says Mr Kiisa, adding that this indeed corresponds the purchasing power we have.
«This means we have 15–16 vehicles purchased per 1,000 inhabitants, making about 60 percent of EU average. That’s exactly our wealth regarding EU average and it must be viewed as totally normal and decent level,» said Mr Kiisa while predicting the level to remain flat in near future.
No big growth foreseen by Mr Sillat either. «The total new car market is about a third below the peak times, and no noteworthy growth is in sight. For this year, we are forecasting five to eight percent growth which, in these economic conditions, may also prove to be smaller,» said Mr Sillat.