Finland September 2023: Tesla most popular brand for the first time, single-handedly tilts market into positive

The Tesla Model Y is by far the best-selling vehicle in Finland in August.

New car sales in Finland gain a solid 10% year-on-year in September to 7,382 units, leading to a year-to-date tally up 9.3% to 67,459. This month and for the first time in Finnish history, Tesla (+451.4%) is the best-selling manufacturer overall. It smashes all its records at 1,202 sales (previous best 899 last June) and 16.3% share (previous best 11.8% last June) and a previous best ranking of #2 last March. This is a spectacular result that confirms Tesla is the king of Northern Europe. Toyota (+5%) follows at 14% share vs. 16.9% so far this year, with the next five brand all in negative: Skoda (-5.1%), Kia (-10.5%), Volvo (-16.4%), Mercedes (-11.3%) and Volkswagen (-15.1%). In fact without Tesla the Finnish market would be down -4.8% to 6,180 sales! Other great performers include Land Rover (+266.7%), Porsche (+133.3%), Hyundai (+53.2%), Opel (+51%) and Audi (+38.6%).

Over in the models lane, the Tesla Model Y (+765.6%) shoots up to 15.4% share, which could well be largest monthly market share ever recorded by a single nameplate in Finland. It is now enough (yet) however to snap the YTD top spot, still the property of the Toyota Corolla (+15.5%) for 45 sales. The Toyota RAV4 (-5.9%) is up to #3, well above the #10 spot it commands year-to-date and is followed by the Skoda Octavia (-42.5%) and Enyaq (-52.1%) both on diametrically opposed year-on-year trajectories. The Toyota Yaris Cross (+104.8%), Nissan Qashqai (+31.9%) and BMW i4 (+14.3%) also beat the market in the remainder of the Top 10.

Previous month: Finland August 2023: Peugeot 2008 best-seller for the first time

One year ago: Finland September 2022: Skoda Octavia #1 again, BMW i4 in Top 10, market up for first time in 15 months

Full September 2023 Top 30 brands and Top 20 models below.