Leasing in Ukraine Grew by 22% and Is Moving Beyond the Car Market

The Ukrainian leasing market grew by 22% in 2025 to €717.6 million compared with €590 million a year earlier.For a country living under war, expensive financing and constant risks for business, this is not dry statistics, but a sign of renewed business activity. Companies are again taking equipment, transport and machinery not only to support current work, but also for development. Until recently, it was almost entirely associated with cars. And this is logical: business needs passenger cars for managers, commercial vehicles for deliveries, trucks for logistics, pickups for work in the regions, and machinery for the agricultural sector. A car in leasing gave a company the opportunity not to freeze large sums at once, but to use the vehicle here and now.

But in 2025, the market began to expand more noticeably. Leasing is moving beyond the car market. In addition to passenger and commercial vehicles, businesses are increasingly leasing medical equipment, production lines, energy solutions, solar panels, batteries and local power stations. This is already a different level of demand. It is not only about transport, but about equipment that allows companies to work, treat patients, produce goods, maintain autonomy and depend less on external shocks. Despite this, cars remain the basis of the market. About 38% of the structure falls on passenger and light commercial vehicles, and another roughly 39% on agricultural machinery. Together, these two segments form the backbone of Ukrainian leasing. And there is nothing strange about this. A car for business is not a beautiful entry on a balance sheet, but a working tool. It carries people, documents, goods, spare parts, equipment, doctors, engineers, sales representatives and farmers. That is why the changing attitude toward cars is very telling. If earlier some buyers perceived a car as an emotional purchase or a status symbol, now business calculates differently. A car has become a tool of mobility and efficiency.What matters is not only the badge on the hood, but maintenance costs, insurance, residual value, downtime, repairs, fuel, speed of replacement and overall usefulness for work.

In this sense, leasing has an advantage over a classic loan. With a loan, the client immediately becomes the owner of the car or equipment and takes on all support: insurance, service, repairs, risks and organizational issues. In leasing, the leasing company remains the owner until the end of the contract, and the product itself can include insurance, technical maintenance, roadside assistance and even coverage of war risks.

For business, this means not only financing, but a ready-made service. A company receives a car or equipment, uses it in its work and does not spend extra resources on handling every small issue. For vehicle fleets, this is especially important. When a company has not one car, but dozens of vehicles, the questions of service, tires, insurance cases, technical condition and transport replacement quickly turn into a separate management block. That is why operational leasing has good chances to become one of the main areas of growth. The client pays for use and mobility, not for the very fact of owning a car. For modern business, this model is becoming increasingly clear. Not every company needs to own a car. Often it needs the vehicle to go out on its route every day, not stand for weeks in repairs and not demand excessive attention from accounting and management.

At the same time, the Ukrainian market still lags significantly behind the European one. Leasing penetration in Ukraine is only 7-8% of new car sales. In Europe, this figure reaches 28-30%, and in Poland about 44%. The difference is large, but it does not mean a lack of demand. On the contrary, it shows how much room for growth still remains. The main restraining factor is the high cost of financing. Ukrainian companies attract resources much more expensively than European players, so the final rate for the client often exceeds 20%. Under such conditions, even a strong business calculates every decision more carefully. Leasing can be convenient, service-based and flexible, but if money is too expensive, some clients postpone renewing their fleet or equipment.

More accessible financing could sharply accelerate market development. If the price of resources decreases, all other advantages of leasing will begin to work more strongly: service, speed of processing, predictability of expenses, the ability not to pull large sums out of turnover. For small and medium-sized businesses, this can be especially important, because such companies often do not have a reserve of funds for a one-time purchase of machinery or equipment. The promising areas are already clearly visible. Medical equipment and energy may become some of the main drivers in the coming years. Ukrainian medical infrastructure will need renewal for a long time MRI, CT and other complex equipment are expensive, but quality diagnostics are impossible without them. Leasing here can give hospitals and private medical institutions a chance to renew faster.

Energy is another area where demand looks natural. Solar panels, batteries, storage systems, local power stations – this is no longer additional comfort, but a way to keep work going during disruptions. For manufacturing, logistics, the agricultural sector, medicine and trade, autonomy directly affects costs, stability and the ability to fulfill obligations to clients. The quality of clients is also a strong signal. Despite the war, the level of problem clients in the market remains low. If at the beginning of the full-scale invasion the share of financing refusals rose to 40%, now it is around 10%, which is even lower than the pre-war level. This indicates a more cautious and mature approach both from leasing companies and from business.

Today, the main clients of Winner Leasing are legal entities their share reaches 99%. Manufacturing, agricultural trading, logistics, pharmaceuticals, dealer fleets and military-tech are the most active users of leasing. These are exactly the sectors where machinery and transport do not stand for show, but work every day for results. The 22% growth in leasing shows that Ukrainian business is not only surviving, but also looking for practical ways to move forward. Companies do not always want to buy an asset immediately anymore. It is important for them to have access to transport, equipment, service and predictable expenses. In a wartime economy, such flexibility can be no less important than the money itself. Ukrainian leasing is still far from European scale, but this is exactly where its potential lies. If financing becomes more accessible, the market may grow not only through cars, but also through medicine, energy, industry and the agricultural sector. And then leasing will finally stop being only a way to take a car for business. It will become one of the working tools of economic recovery.