Overall in 2019, 92.8% of all new light commercial vehicles registered in the European Union ran on diesel, while petrol accounted for 4.4% of van registrations. Electrically‐chargeable vehicles (ECV) made up 1.2% of total new van sales across the region, and all alternatively‐powered vehicles (APV) together held a combined market share of 2.8% last year.
Diesel and petrol vans
Last year, the number of diesel vans registered across the European Union1 increased by 2.4% to 1,956,004 units. Looking at the major EU markets, demand for light commercial vehicles running on diesel increased in Germany (+7.7%), France (+3.4%) and the United Kingdom (+1.7%). On the other hand, registrations of diesel vans fell in Italy (-0.3%) and Spain (-4.0%) in 2019.
93,373 petrol vans were registered across the EU last year, up 14.9% compared to 2018. With the exception of Germany (-11.7%), demand for petrol-fuelled vehicles increased strongly, including in Spain (+30.3%) and France (+27.9%) – which combined accounted for half of all petrol vans sold in the EU – as well as in Italy (+65.3%) and the United Kingdom (+12.4%).
Alternatively-powered vehicles (APV)
In 2019, demand for new electric2 vans grew by 22.9%, counting 26,107 units and representing 1.2% of total EU light commercial vehicle sales. France (8,087 units) and Germany (6,704 units) were the biggest markets for these electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) last year, making up almost 60% of all electric vans registered across the European Union.
4,577 new hybrid electric vans were registered in 2019, or 159.8% more than the year before. This triple-digit growth, however, was mainly the result of a low basis of comparison. Indeed, hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) only accounted for 0.2% of all light commercial vehicles sold in the region.
Registrations of alternative fuel3 vehicles increased by 33.6% to 27,305 units in 2019. Italy (10,110 units) and Spain (6,429 units) were the largest EU markets for vans running on alternative fuels. Spanish demand for natural gas and LPG-powered light commercial vehicles increased by 84.5% last year, while Italy recorded a growth of 23.0%.
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