Demand for financial services

We expect automotive financial services to continue to grow in importance worldwide in 2016. We anticipate that demand for financial services will increase more strongly in those emerging markets in which market penetration is currently low, such as China. In regions with developed automotive finance markets, there will be a further shift in the offering towards enabling mobility at a manageable total cost. Integrated end-to-end solutions, comprising service modules such as insurance and innovative packages of services, and new mobility offerings such as carsharing will become increasingly important. We also expect this trend to continue in the period 2017 to 2020.

In the mid-sized and heavy commercial vehicles category, we expect rising demand for financial services products in emerging markets. There in particular, financing solutions support vehicle sales and are thus an essential component of the sales process. We anticipate increased demand in 2016 in the developed markets for services that reduce the total cost of ownership. This trend will continue in the period 2017 to 2020.