Annual Report 2019

In 2020, worldwide demand for cars should stabilize and remain close to the level of the previous year.

The European market is likely to be of the magnitude of 2019. We expect demand to remain fairly stable also in Western Europe. Demand in Germany, the region’s largest single market, is likely to decrease slightly. Slight growth of the car market is expected in Eastern Europe, following the relatively weak development in the previous year.

Slight contraction is expected in the US market for cars and light trucks. The anticipated market level remains solid, however. The Chinese car market should stabilize after the significant decline in 2019 and roughly maintain the previous year’s level.

In the EU30 region (European Union, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway) in 2020, we anticipate a market volume at the prior-year level in the combined segment of mid-size and large vans, as well as in the market for small vans. In the United States, demand for large vans should be slightly stronger than in the previous year. We expect the market for large vans in Latin America to grow significantly in 2020, driven by demand in Brazil. In China, we anticipate slight growth in the market for mid-size vans.

For major truck sales markets, we expect generally rather unfavorable conditions in 2020.

In the NAFTA region, we assume that the market for heavy-duty trucks (class 8) will contract significantly compared with the very high level of demand in 2019.

In a still weak overall economic environment in the EU30 region, we expect demand for heavy-duty trucks to decrease significantly compared with the robust prior-year level. In Brazil, sales of heavy trucks are only likely to remain close to the level of 2019 after the lively recovery of recent years.

In Japan, we anticipate a significant decrease in demand for heavy-duty trucks.

We expect the market volume for buses in both the EU30 region and Brazil to be slightly below the level of 2019.