European commercial vehicle sales grew significantly in Q3 2023: vans +14.3%, trucks +23%, and buses +18.5%.

European commercial vehicle sales grew significantly in Q3 2023: vans +14.3%, trucks +23%, and buses +18.5%.

In the first three quarters of 2023, new truck sales in the European Union increased by 14.3 per cent, reaching one million units. This performance was primarily driven by robust results in key EU markets, with Spain (+20.5 per cent), Germany (+18.2 per cent) and Italy (+16.7 per cent) recording double-digit growth.

New truck registrations in the EU showed even more pronounced growth, rising by 23% over the first three quarters to a total of 268,766 units. Germany led sales with 75,241 registrations, a substantial 31.2% increase. Other major EU markets also saw significant growth, including Spain (+23.8%), Italy (+17%), France (+15.6%) and Poland (+10.9%).

New bus registrations across the EU also saw substantial growth in the first three quarters of this year, rising by 18.5% year-on-year to 23,645 units. France led sales with 4,735 units, an increase of 9.1%. Italy (+65.9%) and Spain (+58.1%) also recorded substantial growth.

The first three quarters of 2023: Diesel accounted for 83% of the market share, slightly below the 87% share recorded in 2022. The market share of electric vans surged to 7.3%, with sales nearly doubling to 91.4%. This growth was primarily driven by triple-digit percentage increases in the first and third largest markets: France (+102.2%) and the Netherlands (+136.8%).

Meanwhile, petrol and diesel markets grew by 39.6% and 9.1% respectively, accounting for 89% of the market share. Truck diesel continued to dominate the truck market, accounting for 95.5% of new truck registrations during January to September this year.

EU diesel truck sales grew robustly by 22%, with key markets including Germany (+29.7%), France (+14%), Poland (+11.9%) and Italy (+17.9%). New electric truck registrations surged by 321.7%, totalling 3,918 units. Germany (+297.9%) and the Netherlands (+1,463.6%) were the primary drivers of this growth, accounting for 65% of EU electric truck sales. Electric trucks now represent a 1.5% market share.