Demand for new commercial vehicles in the EU kept growing in May (+3.3%), although at a slower rate compared to the previous month, totaling 212,122 units sold. Among the main national markets, Spain posted the best performance (+8.4%), followed by France (+2.1%), while all other markets remained stable – Italy (+0.3%, with 19,169 registrations, only about 50 more than in May 2017), UK (-0.3%), Germany (-0.6%).
Growth was supported by light commercial vehicle and bus & coach segments (respectively +4.3% and +2.9%), while trucks and heavy trucks declined by 2.2% and 2.4%, mostly because of the contraction of British and German markets.
Five months into 2018, commercial vehicle registrations expanded by 4.1%, with over one million units (1,034,983). From January to May, Spain led the growth with double digit numbers (+11.4%), followed by France (+5.5%), Italy (+3.0%, with 87,487 vehicles registered, nearly 2.6 thousand over the same period last year) and Germany (+2.9%), while British market slowed down (-2.6%).