New commercial vehicle registrations in the EU dropped for the fifteenth consecutive in March (-9.8 per cent), totalling 166,402 units.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), the sharpest decline was registered in the heavy-duty segment (-18.8 per cent), where the most important markets contracted severely, by -13.4 per cent in the UK to -14.7 per cent in France, -23.3 per cent in Italy, -23.7 per cent in Germany and -26.7 per cent in Spain.
Over the first quarter, Germany remained the largest market in terms of heavy vehicle registrations (17,913 units), although shrinking by 18.9 per cent compared to the same period last year, followed by France (10,555 units; -15.7 per cent), the UK (9,248 units; -16.3 per cent), Italy (3,191 units; -21.1 per cent) and Spain (2,552 units; -20.5 per cent). In total, 62,154 trucks were registered in the EU, or 16.8 per cent less than in the first three months of 2012.