CV Sales on Comeback Trail in Europe

PARIS – Sales of light, medium and heavy trucks are booming in Europe compared with last year, but “we still have a long way to go” to catch up to pre-crisis sales levels, says the statistician for the ACEA, the European vehicle manufacturers’ organization.

Sales of light-commercial vehicles – vans up to 3.5 tons that are made by nearly all the auto makers in Europe – were up 21.5% in May to 146,350 units.

MAN registered 12,129 medium-duties in first quarter.

However, notes Quynh-Nhu Huynh, manager of economics and communications for the ACEA, sales in the month were 24.9% below the 194,980 units of like-2007.

“We are gradually recovering from the crisis,” she says. “But it has to be put into perspective. At the end of 2008, there was a dramatic fall in sales.”

Generally, sales of CVs are considered a forward indicator of economic recovery as businesses invest in the future transportation of goods and people.

The ACEA says LCV sales were up 21.5% in May and 11.4% year-to-date. Medium trucks to 16 tons saw demand jump 50.8% in May and 49.2% for the first five months, while heavy-trucks sales rose 63.1% during the month and 62.2% year-to-date.

Buses and coach demand climbed 5.3% in May and was on par with year-ago for the first five months.

The recovery in sales is somewhat mixed. The five largest European markets, France, Germany, the U.K., Italy and Spain, together account for 75% of sales in the European Union. They saw CV sales rise 13.8% for the year, although Spain is down 7.4% and Italy is up just 1.1%.

Spain has been impacted greatly by the global economic crisis, but Greece has been hit even harder, and CV sales there are down 49.3% for the year.

In Portugal, which also is in an austerity mode, CV sales are off 15.9% for the year. Ireland, the other European Union member in economic trouble, saw deliveries rise 63.0% in May and 11.6% for the first five months, suggesting a recovery is under way.

Sales in nine Central and Eastern European members of the European Union are up 37.5% for the year. Many of those economies suffered more in the crisis than those in Western Europe, where governments had greater ability to cushion the impact.

Light-duty models make up the biggest CV segment by far, accounting for 689,388 units of the total 835,539 sold through the first five months. France is the biggest market at 208,227 units this year, ahead of Germany, at 133,848.

The French taste for small delivery vehicles helps Renault to lead the segment, but the competition is ferocious among six brands. In the first quarter this year, Renault controlled 15.5% of the segment, Fiat and Ford 11.5% each, Volkswagen 11.2%, Citroen 11.1% and Peugeot 10.6%.

Volkswagen, the EU’s passenger-car leader, is aggressively trying to increase its CV presence, launching a number of new features in June, including 114-hp low-emission BlueMotion 2.0 TDI engines with stop/start in the Transporter, Multivan, Caravelle and California.

In addition, VW has been aiming at domination among bigger vehicles, as well. The group appears on the verge of taking control of MAN, a 250-year-old truck maker. MAN registered 12,129 medium-duties in the first quarter, and VW 480 units.

VW already controls Scania, which sold 8,301 units in the first quarter, and it hopes to put the company together with MAN. In heavy trucks, Man delivered 9,007 units in the first quarter, and Scania 8,269.