EU demand for commercial vehicles saw modest growth in June, helping to drive the first half market up by 4.2%.

During the first half of 2017, almost 1,221,811 new commercial vehicles registered.

Latest ACEA figures show that June registrations rose 2.5% with growth mainly sustained by the van and bus segments. All major markets performed well, except for a rather significant decline (-6.7%) in German demand. The Italian and Spanish markets recorded the highest percentage gains (+12.7% and +8.8% respectively), followed by France (+2.6%) and the United Kingdom (+2.1%) – the latter recovering again after a decline in May. In total, 229,570 commercial vehicles were registered in June.

During the first half of 2017 the EU market expanded by 4.2%, counting almost 1,221,811 new commercial vehicles registered. Spain posted the strongest results over this period (+14.2%), followed by Italy (+8.7%), France (+6.0%) and Germany (+2.1%). The UK market, on the other hand, contracted (-2.7%) over the first half of the year.

For vans up to 3.5 tonnes, June registrations of EU totalled 193,444 units, up 3.2%. Italy (+13.3%), Spain (+8.7%), France (+2.0%) and the UK (+1.8%) all posted growth, while Germany declined -4.5%. For the first six months of the year, van registrations were up 4.7% – the UK (-3.7%) was the only major market with falling demand, while Spain (+16.3%), Italy (+6.5%), France (+6.4%) and Germany (+3.3%) all performed well.

Meanwhile June truck registrations fell 1.7% to 32,620 units. Each of the five big markets did very well, apart from Germany, which saw a double-digit decline (-13.1%). In contrast, for the first half, a total of 186,972 new trucks were registered in the EU, 1.8% more than last year. Italy (+21.5%), France (+5.7%) and the UK (+5.6%) performed very well, but truck registrations fell in Germany and Spain (-1.6% and -1.5% respectively).