Fuel types of new trucks: diesel 96.5%, electric 0.4%, alternative fuels 2.9% market share in 2020

Brussels, 12 March 2021 – In 2020, diesel still dominated EU truck registrations in terms of market share (96.5%), while petrol made up only 0.1% of total demand last year. Electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) accounted for 0.4% of all new trucks registered across the European Union; all alternatively-powered vehicles (APV) combined held a market share of 3.4% in 2020.

Diesel and petrol trucks

Overall in 2020, registrations of new diesel trucks in the European Union1 fell by 25.6% to 225,854 units, with demand weakened by the impact of COVID-19. With the exception of Greece, all EU markets posted double-digit declines in diesel sales last year, including the four major ones: Germany (-25.3%), France (-24.7%), Spain (-21.4%) and Italy (-13.0%). This resulted in an EU-wide market share of 96.4% for diesel, down from 97.5% in 2019.

At the same time, only 210 petrol trucks were registered across the entire EU region in 2020, 95% of which were sold in three countries alone: Germany, Finland and Belgium.

Alternatively-powered vehicles (APV)

Registrations of new electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV)2 in the European Union went from 745 trucks in 2019 to 984 in 2020 (up 32.1%), resulting in a market share of 0.4%. Over 90% of all electric trucks registered across the region were sold in just two markets: Germany (852 units) and the Netherlands (41 units). By contrast, in 10 EU countries not a single electrically-chargeable truck was sold last year.

In 2020, EU demand for hybrid trucks decreased by 41.2% to reach 157 units registered in total. Indeed, hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) accounted for only 0.1% of all medium and heavy commercial vehicles sold in the European Union.

Alternative fuel3 vehicles – 99% of which run on natural gas – accounted for the vast majority of alternatively-powered trucks registered last year. Demand increased by 5.5% to 6,841 units, with the market share expanding from 2.1% in 2019 to 2.9% in 2020. This was mostly driven by strong sales of natural gas trucks in Germany, which is now the biggest EU market for these vehicles.

1 Data for Bulgaria, Malta and Lithuania not available

2 Includes full battery electric vehicles, fuel-cell electric vehicles, extended-range vehicles and plug-in hybrids

3 Includes natural gas, LPG, biofuels and ethanol vehicles

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About ACEA

  • The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) is the Brussels-based trade association of the 14 major car, van, truck and bus producers in Europe.
  • The ACEA commercial vehicle members are DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ford Trucks, Iveco Group, MAN Truck & Bus, Scania, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and Volvo Group.
  • Visit www.acea.auto for more information about ACEA, and follow us on www.twitter.com/ACEA_auto or www.linkedin.com/company/ACEA/.
  • Contact: Francesca Piazza, Senior Statistics Manager, fp@acea.auto.

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About the EU automobile industry

  • 13.0 million Europeans work in the automotive sector
  • 11.5% of all manufacturing jobs in the EU
  • €374.6 billion in tax revenue for European governments
  • €101.9 billion trade surplus for the European Union
  • Over 7% of EU GDP generated by the auto industry
  • €59.1 billion in R&D spending annually, 31% of EU total
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