May was a strong month for passenger car registrations in the Nordics, with only Finland closing the month with a modest minus. Truck registrations, on the other hand, ended below the level in all four markets.
With 15,560 new registrations, it was Norway that ended May with the biggest growth. The result is 9.1% above last year's level. Denmark follows with 19,092 new registrations, corresponding to growth of 6.4% compared with last year's level. With an increase of 0.1% and a total of 25,304 new registrations, Sweden lands completely level with May 2025, while Finland, with 6,785 new registrations and a decline of 1%, just fails to make it over the line.
So far this year, only Denmark, with a plus of 12.9%, is above the 2025 level, although the other markets are very close. Finland is 0.4% below, Sweden 2% below and Norway 5.8% below last year's level.
A clear development for electric cars
May was yet another month with green figures across the board for electric cars. Norway continues in its relentlessly secure style with a share of 97.8% of new registrations. In Denmark there was yet another record with a total share of 78.7% and as much as 95.8% for the private segment.
While the development in the electric car share has only gone in one direction for Norway and Denmark in recent years, there have been bumps in the road for both Sweden and Finland, where the level several times during 2024 and 2025 was lower than the results from 2023. In the past month, however, we can see that both markets have again passed the 2023 level. In Finland, electric cars accounted for 48.8% of new registrations, a relative increase of 45.7%, while Sweden landed at 42.4%, which corresponds to an increase of 13.1%.
Andrée Peters, CEO of Bilstatistik.se, has several explanations for what, despite difficult conditions, is driving the Swedish development:
“Private customers continue to find their way back to the car showrooms, while companies choose to wait. High fuel prices are probably one of the explanations for the electric car share being pushed up. In addition, over 2,100 people were granted the new electric car subsidy in May. However, it is unclear how much of the subsidy was granted for new electric cars compared with used ones.”
Favourite models
The national top 10 lists resemble something we recognise – every country has its favourites. While Volvo takes four of ten places in Sweden, Toyota takes half of the places in Finland. In Denmark and Norway the brand preferences are less pronounced, but both place the Tesla Model Y in first place, in Norway even very clearly with more than four times as many registrations as the second place on the list.
Mixed month for light trucks and trucks
May was not a big month for trucks, with all four markets closing with a small minus. The biggest was in Finland with a decline of 15.6%, second biggest in Norway with 12.9%, followed by Denmark with 9.1% and finally Sweden with 2.1%.
However, all markets are more or less level with 2025 when looking at the total number of registrations so far this year.
Things went somewhat better for light trucks, where only the Danish market closes with negative figures. The decline in Denmark was 7.7%. The Swedish market, on the other hand, got a lift of 21.7% and the Norwegian a lift of 9.4%. Finnish registrations of light trucks close with a modest plus of 0.5%.
Sharing the content of the article
Figures and data from the article may only be shared with a clear reference to the source:
Danish data: Bilstatistik.dk
Swedish data: Bilstatistik.se
Norwegian data: Opplysningsrådet for veitrafikken
Finnish data: Value Clinic (Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, Transport and Traffic Register)