Vans see commercial vehicle sales drop in Europe

According to data just in from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), registrations of new commercial vehicles in Europe contracted for a 16th month in a row in October. However, it’s largely the depressed van market that is underpinning that trend, with sales of new trucks and buses actually up on October 2021 figures.

“In October 2022, the EU market for new commercial vehicles continued to struggle, declining for the sixteenth month in a row (-8.5%),” reports the ACEA.

“This was due to the drop in new van registrations, which account for the vast majority of total commercial vehicle sales. By contrast, the truck and bus segments performed better than in October 2021.

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“Looking at the region’s four largest markets, Germany saw the sharpest decline in total commercial vehicle sales (-12.4%), followed by France and Italy with more modest losses (-5.3% and -3.9% respectively). Spain, on the other hand, managed to post a slight increase (+1.2%).

“Ten months into the year, registrations of new commercial vehicles across the European Union contracted by 16.8% to 1.3 million units. The region’s overall performance was dampened by the weak results of its four key markets, all facing double-digit declines: Spain (-20.9%), France (-19.1%), Germany (-15.4%) and Italy (-10.4%).

Digging down into the major categories, registrations of new light commercial vehicles (up to 3.5t) totalled 102,766 units in October, marking a fall of 13.9%. Year to date, around one million new LCVs have been registered, which is down 20.6% over the previous corresponding period.

It’s a different story in the heavy commercial segment (16t and over), where 23,592 units were registered for the month, equating with growth of 18.0% over the same month last year. A total of 211,649 new trucks have been registered in the EU year to date, which is up 5.9% over the same period last year.

In the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment (over 3.5t), new registrations were up 16.0% in October and up 2.7% year to date. And new medium and heavy buses and coaches (over 3.5t) were up 24.4% for the month but were down 2.4% year to date.