EU commercial vehicle market improves in 2019

ISTANBUL-Anadolu Agency

The EU commercial vehicles market rose 2.5 percent year-on-year in 2019, posting a growth for the seventh consecutive year, an industry group said on Jan. 23.

The number of new commercial vehicle registrations in the year amounted to 2.55 million, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.

Germany led this growth with a rise of 6.1 percent, followed by France (4.3 percent), the U.K. (3 percent), Italy (1.9 percent) and Spain (0.3 percent), the association said.

The EU's demand for vans -- light commercial vehicles -- soared 2.8 percent in the January-December period to 2.1 million units.

Heavy?duty trucks registrations saw a slight increase of 0.1 percent to 312,692 units.

"2019 ended positively for the EU truck [medium and heavy commercial vehicles] market (+0.9 percent), despite the slowdown observed in the second half of the year," it said.

Some 388,342 new trucks were registered during last year.

In 2019, demand for new buses and coaches was also positive (+1.8 percent), reaching 42,838 units.

In 2018, the number of new commercial vehicle registrations had totaled 2.48 million in the 28-member bloc.