Commercial Truck Sales Drop 5% in Europe

Demand for commercial vans, trucks and buses across Europe shrank 5% year on year to 219,600 units in September, trade group ACEA reports.

Demand last month rose 1% to 30,600 units in Germany. But volumes fell in the U.K. (-6% to 60,000 units), France (-2% to 39,400), Spain (-10% to 15,900) and Italy (-18% to 14,600). It was the market’s first decline after five months of consecutive expansion.

Deliveries of light-duty commercial vehicles, most of them vans, dropped 6% to 183,300 units in September. Sales of heavy-duty trucks were unchanged at 26,800 units.

Commercial vehicle sales throughout Europe through the first nine months of 2018 totaled 1.91 million units, up 4% from the same period in 2017.