EU commercial vehicle market grows 4.6% in 9-month

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The EU commercial vehicles market posted an increase of 4.6% during the first 9 months of 2019, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) announced on Thursday.

The ACEA reported that the number of new commercial vehicle registrations in the nine-month period totaled 1.93 million.

Germany led this growth with an increase of 10.9%, followed by France (6.1%), the U.K. (5.1%), Italy (4.9%) and Spain (1.5%), the association said.

The EU's demand for vans -- light commercial vehicles -- soared 4.4% in the Jan.-Sept. period to 1.6 million units.

"EU demand for heavy‐duty trucks went up by 5.3%, despite the slowdown over the last three months." it said.

On the medium/heavy commercial vehicles side, demand for new trucks across the EU saw a growth of up 5.7% over the same period, even though the third quarter's figures were negative.

"Nine months into 2019, demand for new buses and coaches remained positive (2.9%)," the ACEA added.

Last year, the number of new commercial vehicle registrations totaled 2.5 million in the 28-member bloc.