Commercial vehicle market: Romania, second place in Europe for electric buses

The registrations of light commercial vehicles in Romania registered a decrease in the first quarter of this year, but the percentage is not very high. In contrast, trucks had a consistent growth, in the medium segment.

The commercial vehicle market in Europe had mixed developments in the main segments, with growth for light commercial vehicles (LCVs) and decline in trucks. New van sales in the EU increased by 12.6% with almost 400,000 units sold on the back of strong results in key markets. Italy had a large increase of 19.4%, followed by Germany with 12.7%, Spain with 10.9% and France with 8.7%.

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At the opposite pole, new truck registrations fell by -4% to 85,296 units. This was supported by a 5.4% decline in heavy truck sales that could not be offset by a 5% increase in medium trucks. Germany and France reported slight declines of 2.2% and 0.3% respectively. Spain and Italy had robust gains of 15.7% and 6.6% respectively.

Bus sales also had a positive start to the year, with new registrations in the EU increasing by 23.3% compared to the first quarter of 2023, totaling 9,624 units. While sales fell by 16.8% in France, three major markets grew substantially: Germany (+20%), Italy (+18.3%) and Spain (+7.6%).

In Romania, the situation was completely opposite to Europe, because LCV sales fell by 3 percent, to a volume of 3,967 units. The decrease is not very big, but it follows the general trend of the car market in Romania. It is worth noting the decrease in purchases of electric vans, by 32%, but also of hybrids, by 57%.

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A mention for the purchases of electric buses in Romania, bought by the local authorities with non-refundable European funds, which took our country to second place in Europe, in this segment. With a total of 162 electric buses, Romania was surpassed in the first quarter only by Germany (175 battery-powered buses), having a higher number than Denmark (119 units) and France (132 units).

In the truck segment, the situation was positive, with an increase of 14.6% (188 units) for light trucks, and less than one percent for heavy trucks (2025 units). Overall, the truck market grew by 1.8%, a small but important percentage for the signal it gives to the local economy.

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In terms of propulsion type, at European level, diesel remains undisputedly the engine of choice for commercial vehicles, but there is still quite high interest in electric LCVs, which have grown more slowly than the market average, but importantly have a positive evolution. With a market share of 5.8% and a sales advance of 4.2%, electric LCVs reached a volume of 23,000 units in Europe, being also the segment that covers almost entirely this type of propulsion.