American Honda Finance projects 30% lease penetration in 2025
Captive’s November lease penetration hit 29%
American Honda Finance Corp. is looking to maintain a lease penetration of close to 30% through 2025, outpacing the forecasted industry average.
The lender’s lease penetration sat near 29% in November, Petar Vucurevic, senior vice president of financial services at American Honda Finance Corp., told Auto Finance News, saying he expects a similar penetration level next year. The captive also operates as Honda Financial Services and Acura Financial Services.
“On the Honda side, between 30% and 35% [lease] penetration is a healthy number,” Vucurevic said. “Historically, we’ve been in that ballpark range consistently.”
Industrywide, Cox Automotive projects that lease penetration of total retail sales will land near 25% at yearend 2025, up 1% from 2024, according to the company’s industry insights and 2025 forecast presentation today.
Leasing drives CPO
American Honda is optimistic about additional supply feeding its certified pre-owned vehicle program as more vehicles come off lease, Vucurevic said.
“We have a strong certified program working closely with our parent company and our dealer body, and that will continue,” he said.
“As with all OEMs, our dealers have the opportunity of purchasing those vehicles when they come back to them, so part of our leasing is making sure we’ve got a certified program that supports retention and also continues to bring new customers into the brand.”
Cox Auto estimates that new lease volume will hit 3.3 million vehicles at yearend 2025, a 4.2% increase YoY, according to today’s forecast. Off-lease volume, however, is projected to return gradually through 2025 due to the fall-off in leasing before an anticipated uptick around April 2026, Jeremy Robb, senior director of economic and industry insights with Cox Auto, said on today’s call.
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