European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association (ACEA) figures for commercial vehicle registrations in May show the UK market continued to perform positively as European registrations maintained their upward trend for the ninth month in a row.
Overall CV demand was up 12% in the UK in May, compared with 2013, and up 8% over the first five months of 2014.
Of the major markets, only Spain, Italy and Germany managed to outperform the UK with overall growth of 41.6%, 13.5% and 16.1% respectively. Portugal at 42.6% and Romania at 64.5% made impressive gains in May, while France posted a contraction of 0.1%.
The heavy truck sector saw a small decline in May by 0.2% as 17,191 CV registrations were made in total. Spain and Germany performed well in the month, with a rise of 32.9% and 22.4% respectively, while the UK, France and Italy all saw decreases of 17.6%, 30.2% and 3.5% respectively. Year-to-date, however, the UK registration figures are behind by 28.1% compared to the first six months of 2013, while Spain continues its positive trend with a 41.9% rise compared to the first half of last year.
It’s a tussle between Spain and the UK in light commercial vehicles market. Spain posted a 45.1% increase in May, compared with 18.4% in the UK, and extended its advantage in year-to-date with a rise of 44.7% ahead of Italy, which grew16.1%.
Italy led the way in bus and coach registrations last month with a 30.8% upturn compared with the same month last year followed by Germany on 21.1%, and Spain at 4.8%. While the UK saw a small decline of 3.8%.
The year-to-date UK bus and coach registrations are ahead of the rest of Europe for the first six months of this year compared with 2013. It is 4.6% up year-on-year compared with decreases of 1.9% in Italy and Spain and 1.2% increase in France, while Germany recorded the biggest gain of 11%.
