The sun shone on passenger car registrations in July, and all four Nordic markets ended the month with positive figures. At the same time, all four markets, with the exception of Norway, which lags slightly behind, are also in positive territory for the year as a whole.
With 14,562 newly registered passenger cars, the Danish market increased by 5.5 percent in July. Sweden follows with +4.6 percent and Norway with +0.5 percent. But it is above all Finland that can look back on a month of strong results. Here, the number of newly registered passenger cars increased by 11.4 percent compared with the same month last year.
Teemu Rennola, CEO of Finland's Value Clinic, says:
“The passenger car market is showing encouraging signs of recovery. Private customers' car purchases have now increased for several months in a row, which suggests that confidence is gradually returning to the car market. At the same time, it is an important milestone that electric cars for the first time account for more than half of all new registrations.”
Private customers continue to drive electric car sales
The Finnish electric car market had more than just a strong registration share to be pleased about in July. The share, which has increased from 36.3 to 51.5 percent, has thus risen by as much as 42 percent compared with July 2025, and it is to a large extent private customers who are driving the development.
Similar tendencies are seen in both Sweden and Denmark. In Denmark, the total electric car share was 80.2 percent, compared with as much as 96.8 percent if we look at the private segment alone. The total share of electric cars has increased by 19.3 percent in one year.
Turning to Sweden, here too we see a growing electric car share and a private segment that clearly shapes the development. Andrée Peters, CEO of Bilstatistik.se, says:
“It is still private customers who are driving car sales in Sweden. And it is electric cars they want. In this sales channel, the number of new registrations doubled in July compared with the same month last year. The figure would probably have been considerably higher if Tesla had not been hit by delivery problems and only managed to deliver 65 cars, compared with the normal more than 900 cars per month in 2026.”
In total, the Swedish electric car share landed at 44.3 percent, compared with 35.6 percent in July 2025.
In Norway, after several years of consistently sky-high electric car shares, it can be concluded that new car sales are in practice electric. In July, a total of 97.6 percent of all newly registered passenger cars were electric cars.
Big changes in the model top lists
Just like last month, Toyota leaves a clear mark on the Nordic top 10 lists. While the bZ4X has taken first place in both Norway and Denmark, Toyota dominates the entire Finnish top 3 list. In Sweden, too, two Toyota models have made it onto the month's top list.
On the big changes, Geir Inge Stokke, managing director of Norwegian OFV, says:
“In Norway, Toyota has gone from tenth to first place in a year, while Xpeng has gone from thirteenth to third place. Tesla is still the largest year to date, however. This underlines how new models, availability and large deliveries can quickly change the brands' positions in the monthly statistics, while more lasting changes must be assessed over time.”
Tough month for light trucks
While the truck market had a relatively stable month, developments were considerably tougher for light trucks, where only the Swedish market ended the month at a higher level than last year (+6.4 percent). Denmark, Finland and Norway, on the other hand, recorded declines of 28.3, 23.8 and 15 percent respectively.
Things look somewhat better if we look at developments so far this year. Here too, however, only Sweden can be pleased with a positive development compared with last year. Through July, registrations of light trucks have increased by 19.5 percent. The Finnish level is 12.1 percent below last year's, the Norwegian 8.5 percent below, while Denmark remains almost unchanged with a decline of 0.2 percent.
The truck market is very close to the status quo in all four markets. The biggest increase, of 2.4 percent, is again Sweden's, while the biggest decline is a modest 0.7 percent and is found in Denmark.
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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)