The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACE) reports that in 2020, diesel still dominated EU truck registrations in terms of market share (96.4%), while petrol made up only 0.1% of total demand last year. Electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) accounted for 0.5% of all new trucks registered across the European Union; all alternatively-powered vehicles (APV) combined held a market share of 3.5% in 2020.
Diesel and petrol trucks
Overall in 2020, registrations of new diesel trucks in the European Union fell by 25.5% to 226,150 units, with demand weakened by the impact of COVID-19. With the exception of Greece, all EU markets posted double-digit declines in diesel sales last year, including the four major ones: Germany (-25.3%), France (-24.7%), Spain (-21.4%) and Italy (-13.0%). This resulted in an EU-wide market share of 96.4% for diesel, down from 97.5% in 2019.
At the same time, only 210 petrol trucks were registered across the entire EU region in 2020, 95% of which were sold in three countries alone: Germany, Finland and Belgium.
Alternatively-powered vehicles (APV)
Registrations of new electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) in the European Union went from 745 trucks in 2019 to 1,059 in 2020 (up 42.1%), resulting in a market share of 0.5%. Over 90% of all electric trucks registered across the region were sold in just three markets: Germany (852 units), Romania (76 units) and the Netherlands (41 units). By contrast, in 12 EU countries not a single electrically-chargeable truck was sold last year.
In 2020, EU demand for hybrid trucks increased by 31.5%, although this was mainly the result of a low base of comparison. With 351 units registered last year, hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) still accounted for only 0.1% of all medium and heavy commercial vehicles sold in the European Union.
Alternative fuel vehicles – 99% of which run on natural gas – accounted for the vast majority of alternatively-powered trucks registered last year. Demand increased by 5.8% to 6,861 units, with the market share expanding from 2.1% in 2019 to 2.9% in 2020. This was mostly driven by strong sales of natural gas trucks in Germany, which is now the biggest EU market for these vehicles.
