EU commercial vehicle sector motors on

Brussels – EU demand for new commercial vehicles increased by 6.1 percent in August to 104,686 units, according to the European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association (ACEA).

Growth was led by the vans sector, which offset lower demand the truck and buses and coaches segments during the month.

All major country markets expanded, from 7.7 percent in Germany to 10.5 percent in Italy, 10.7 percent in the UK and 17.6 percent in Spain. The main exception was France, which posted a 6.1-percent drop in registrations.

The ACEA figures represented the twelfth consecutive month of growth in the EU market and followed on from similarly positive data in the previous month.

July demand for new commercial vehicle increased by 9.5 percent helped by strong sales in the UK, Spain and Italy, according to the ACEA.

The increases in Italy (+23.7 percent), Spain (+24.5 percent) and the UK (+25.9 percent) offset weakness elsewhere: the French market was down by 6.7 percent, while demand in Germany was up by a modest 3.4 percent.

Overall, from January to August, 1,171,120 new commercial vehicles were registered - 9.1 percent more than in the same period last year.

Looking at the largest markets, France remained stable (-1.0 percent), while Germany expanded by 7.5 percent. The UK (+12.8 percent), Italy (+15.1 percent) and Spain (+33.9 percent) posted double-digit growths, the ACEA data shows.