ACEA

COMMERCIAL VEHICLES: registrations up 8% in 2010

Brussels, 25/01/2011 - In December, demand for new commercial vehicles continued to increase (+12.5%) across segments, except for buses and coaches (-1.4%). Cumulative results from January to December also showed the expansion of the EU* markets for vans and trucks while registrations of buses and coaches declined, leading to an overall 8.0% growth in the region.

New Light Commercial Vehicles up to 3.5t – “vans”

In December, new van registrations were up 8.4%. Germany (+33.6%), the UK (+21.9%) and France (+6.4%) contributed most to the upturn. Italy and Spain saw their markets decrease by 7.1% and 2.7% respectively. Over twelve months, registrations of new vans amounted to 1,488,848 units, or 8.7% more than in 2009. All majors markets posted growth, ranging from +6.2% in Italy to 8.8% in Spain, 11.5% in France, 16.0% in Germany and 19.5% in the UK. The steepest downturn was recorded in Slovakia (-56.0%) while the Swedish market expanded the most (+38.3%).

New Heavy Commercial Vehicles over 16t (excluding Buses & Coaches) – “heavy trucks”

The segment of heavy trucks posted the strongest increase in December (+70.2%) coming from the low levels recorded in December 2009 (-39.4%). All major markets posted growth. Germany remained the largest one with 4,496 heavy trucks registered, followed by France (2,842 units), the UK (2,220), Spain (960) and Italy (904). From January to December, demand for heavy trucks grew by 8.4% in the EU*, sustained by the Spanish (+22.1%), German (+21.4%) and British (+5.0%) markets. Italy (-3.4%) and France (-1.4%) performed slightly less well in 2010 than in 2009.

New Commercial Vehicles over 3.5t (excluding Buses & Coaches) – “trucks”

In December, registrations of new trucks increased by 47.8% in the EU*. Looking at the largest markets, France (+50.9%), the UK (+51.6%) and Germany (+57.4%) performed similarly, posting strong growths. Italy and Spain expanded by 18.6% and 15.0% respectively. Over 2010, a total of 249,869 new trucks were registered in the EU*, or 6.4% more than in 2009. Results were mixed across countries as registrations slipped by 0.8% and 0.9% in the UK and France, while they were down 5.0% in Italy and up 12.1% and 19.7% in Spain and Germany respectively.

New Buses & Coaches over 3.5t

The segment of buses and coaches was the only one to decline in December (-1.4%), in spite of positive results observed in Spain (+32.0%) and Italy (+74.7%). The downturn ranged from -18.1% in Germany to -22.4% in the UK and -33.9% in France. From January to December, registrations of new buses and coaches fell by 10.4%. Italy was the only significant market to post growth (+24.5%) while Germany (-7.0%), Spain (-8.2%), the UK (-13.2%) and France (-20.5%) all saw their markets contract.

* Data for Cyprus and Malta are unavailable

NB: Commencing with the January 2010 new commercial vehicle registrations figures, the ACEA data sheet will provide new vehicle registrations in alphabetical order for the countries of the European Union, and no longer separate for Western-Europe (15) and new EU Member States (10)*. Results for the EFTA countries will continue to be reported separately. The monthly press releases will quote the ‘EU’ figures first, followed by the ‘total Europe’ figures, adding up the EU and EFTA figures.

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