Honda’s Finance Arm Leads in U.S. Leasing Market

Honda Motor Co.'s U.S. lending unit, American Honda Finance Corp., accounted for 16.5% of all new-vehicle leases in the country in the first quarter of this year, Automotive News reports, citing data from Experian Automotive.

Honda's share of the American new-vehicle market was 9.2% in that period. The company holds an outsized portion of the lease market for two reasons, the newspaper says. One-third of all Honda vehicles are leased (second only to Volkswagen AG at 43%), and Honda Finance captures 98% of those leases.

Honda Finance's nearest competitors are Ford Motor Credit Co. and Toyota Financial Services, each at 11.4% of the lease market. Leases accounted for one in five new-vehicle transactions in the January-March period.

Leasing is becoming a more important part of the auto financing market as the economy improves, according to AN. It cites LeaseTrader.com, which predicts leasing could account for as much as 40% of the auto market by 2020 compared with 10% during the recession.