Diesel Powered Trucks Continue to Dominate EU Market but EVs are on the Rise

ACEA reports 97.9% of new EU medium and heavy trucks in 2019 were diesel powered, however demand for new electric and other alternatively powered trucks showed strong growth.

While diesel powered trucks still dominate the market, electric trucks like the pictured Scania battery-electric model are quickly gaining market share.
While diesel powered trucks still dominate the market, electric trucks like the pictured Scania battery-electric model are quickly gaining market share.
Scania CV AB

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

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