Strong demand for new vans helped EU commercial vehicle registrations rise 2.5% in 2019; the seventh consecutive year of growth.

EU van registrations were up 2.8% in 2019

The rise was boosted by a 5.7% upturn in December, ending three months of decline, and growth was seen in all major markets in 2019, according to the ACEA data, with Germany posting a 6.1% increase, France +4.3%, the UK +3.0%, Italy +1.9% and Spain +0.3%.

Within the van segment, registrations totalled 2.1 million units across the EU in 2019, a 2.8% increase compared to 2018. However, demand was not seen uniformly across the year, with the introduction of WLTP for vans in September having pulled forward registrations to the summer months, which the market having subsequently slowed down from September to November. However, that effect eased in December, with van registrations rising 8.2%. The five big markets all posted van sector gains last year, in particular in Germany (+6.9%) and France (+4.5%).

2019 also ended positively for new medium and heavy commercial vehicles over 3.5t (+0.9%). The UK (+9.5%), Germany (+4.2%), France (+1.5%) and Spain (+1.1%) all performed better than in 2018. Italy (-7.6%) was the only key market to see falling demand.

However, the EU truck market fell over the second half of the year, with December’s 9.4% downturn marking the sixth month running of decline. This was mainly the result of the decline in heavy-truck registrations, which made up the bulk of total truck demand. The region’s main markets followed this negative trend, with Germany (-12.2%), Italy (-11.7%) and France (-10.5%) seeing double-digit drops.