Commercial vehicles: over 10% more new trucks registered in Europe in 1st half 07

New Light Commercial Vehicles up to 3.5t (vans)

New van market in Europe (EU23+EFTA) saw a solid, +5.8%, growth in its registrations over the first six months of 2007. Western Europe reported a+4.8% rise while the new EU member states ended up the first semester with a +20.1% upturn. Despite a reduced number of working days in fourteen countries in June, +6.5% more vans than last year were registered in Europe, reaching a total of 208,671. June registrations were boosted, among others, by good performance of the majority of the biggest countries (Germany +13.4%, Italy +2.6% and the UK +1.6%) but especially by the Portuguese market that doubled its 2006 first semester registrations. On the contrary, France (–2%) and Spain (–0.9%) suffered losses. Apart from Denmark (–19.2%), Luxembourg (–13.4%) and Greece (–0.3%), all other EU15 countries posted increases. New EU members (+12.7%) also positively contributed to the overall result. The majority of the EU markets, apart from Greece (–5.9%), Hungary (–1.9%) and Lithuania (–5.5%) improved their cumulative figures compared to the first semester 2006.

New Heavy Commercial Vehicles over 16t (excluding Buses & Coaches)

New heavy trucks registrations in Europe highly increased again in June 2007 (by +35.7%) after having surged by over 60% in May. Truck registrations are likely to be distorted throughout the remainder of 2007 due to last year’s fall in purchases further to the introduction of digital tachograph in May 2006. After last month’s strong increase, all the EU markets posted growths in June. While Germany almost doubled its last year’s result and the UK registered +34.5% more heavy trucks, the expansion was somehow limited in France (+8.7%), Italy (+1%) and Spain (+1.9%). New EU members’ registrations were up by +58.9%. Thanks to the last two months’ exceptional results, a downturn trend in European truck registrations from the beginning of the year (–10.9% between January and April) has been reversed. First half of 2007 showed a +2.4% improvement in Europe. Still, all the main markets saw their registrations deteriorate as compared with last year, retaining the EU15 on a downward path (–2.9%). On the contrary, new Member States further boosted their result (+50.6%).

New Commercial Vehicles over 3.5t (excluding Buses & Coaches)

Reflecting the above-depicted developments in the heavy truck sector, new commercial vehicle market in Europe went up by +36.8% in June 2007. In total, 38,265 trucks were registered. The new EU members’ registrations soared by +78.3%. Apart from the Italian market that remained flat (–0.5%), all other EU countries enjoyed growths. Among the main markets, Germany and the UK performed best (+74% and +53.2%, respectively), followed by Spain (+8.5%) and France (+3.5%). All the other countries also improved their monthly registrations. However, the cumulative result over the first six months of 2007 (+0.3%) points to stagnation on the truck market in the EU. Western Europe slowdown (–4%) contrasted with the new EU member states increase of +45.7%.

New Buses & Coaches over 3.5t

The market for new buses and coaches in Europe (EU21+EFTA) rebounded in June 2007 (+10%), contributing to further reduce the overall six-month cumulative loss (–7.5%). French and British bus & coach registrations climbed in June (+76.7% and +91.4%) while Spanish, German and Italian markets saw their results decline (–2%, –3.3% and –28.7%, respectively).