European demand for new commercial vehicles increased yet again in December 2016, up 10.4 per cent to a total 211,941 units according to new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
Growth was sustained across all commercial vehicle segments, with Italy ending the year on an extremely strong note (+97.0 per cent), with registrations almost doubling as a result of government incentives for fleet renewal that were introduced in September.
Spain (+13.3 per cent), Germany (+3.4 per cent) and France (+2.9 per cent) also posted growth, while the UK saw its demand decline during the last month of the year (-9.7 per cent), mainly due to a drop in registrations of vans.
Over all of 2016, the EU market showed a consistent uplift (+11.6 per cent) and rose for the fourth year in a row, reaching 2,324,371 million commercial vehicles registered.
Throughout the year, the five big markets performed better than in 2015. Italy (+49.9 per cent) showed the most significant increase, followed by Spain (+11.3 per cent), France (+8.3 per cent), Germany (+7.0 per cent) and the UK (+1.2 per cent).