In 2019, 97.9% of all new medium and heavy trucks (over 3.5 tonnes) registered in the European Union (EU) ran on diesel, while petrol fueled only 0.1% of last year’s registrations. Electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) accounted for 0.2% of total new truck sales across the region, while all alternatively-powered vehicles (APV) combined made up 2% of the EU market.
Diesel and petrol trucks
Last year, the number of diesel trucks registered in the EU1 grew by 3.5% compared to 2018, reaching 361,135 units. With the exception of Italy (-9.5%), demand for diesel vehicles increased in all major EU markets: the United Kingdom (+10.2%), Germany (+3.0%), France (+0.8%) and Spain (+0.3%).
By contrast, 227 petrol trucks were registered across the entire EU28 region in 2019, almost 90% of which were sold in two countries alone: Finland and Germany.
Alternatively-powered vehicles (APV)
Overall in 2019, demand for new electric2 trucks grew significantly (+109.2%) across the EU, although this was mainly the result of a low basis of comparison. Registrations of new electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) went from 357 trucks in 2018 to 747 in 2019, resulting in a market share of 0.2%.
The main markets for these vehicles were Germany (608 units), the Netherlands (76) and France (24), which together accounted for 95% of all ECV truck registrations last year. By contrast, no electrically-chargeable trucks were registered at all in 12 EU countries in 2019.
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), held a smaller share of new truck sales in 2019 than the year before. 272 HEV trucks were registered last year, down 10.8% compared to 2018.
Alternative fuels3 accounted for the vast majority of alternatively-powered trucks sold in the EU last year. Registrations increased by 71.0% to 6,371 units, 98% of which were vehicles running on natural gas (NGV). France, Italy and Germany are the largest EU markets for alternative-fuel trucks. In 2019, German sales increased by 372.8%, followed by Italy (+44.5%) and France (+30.2%).
1 Data for Bulgaria, Croatia, Malta, Lithuania and Iceland not available, 2019 data for the EU still include the United Kingdom
2 Electrically‐chargeable vehicles (ECV) include full battery electric vehicles, fuel‐cell electric vehicles, extended‐range vehicles and plug‐in hybrids
3 Comprises natural gas, LPG, biofuels and ethanol vehicles
