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The EU commercial vehicle market in the first half of 2026

Growth accompanied by shifts in powertrain types

New commercial vehicle registrations in 2026 showed a positive trend in the first half of the year. Registrations of vans, lorries and buses increased. At the same time, electric and hybrid vehicles grew significantly. Nevertheless, diesel remains the dominant powertrain across all vehicle segments.
KI-generiert / eka
THE KEY POINTS IN BRIEF
• Van, lorry and bus registrations rose in the EU in the first half of 2026.
• Diesel remains the dominant powertrain, whilst electric and hybrid vehicles are gaining market share across all segments.
• Electric buses and electric lorries, in particular, recorded strong growth rates and are driving the transformation of the commercial vehicle market.

Despite geopo­lit­i­cal chal­lenges, the Euro­pean com­mer­cial vehi­cle mar­ket record­ed a pos­i­tive first half of 2026. Growth in the van and lor­ry seg­ments reflect­ed a recov­ery from a low base, whilst the bus seg­ment record­ed strong growth. Elec­tric vehi­cles con­tin­ued to gain mar­ket share, but their uptake is lag­ging behind expec­ta­tions, due to inad­e­quate frame­work con­di­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the heav­ier vehi­cle seg­ments.

New commercial vehicle registrations in 2026 are showing a positive trend

Sales of new vans in the EU rose by 1.9 per cent to 742,759 units. Growth in the four largest mar­kets was, how­ev­er, mixed: Spain record­ed a sol­id increase (+7.9%), whilst reg­is­tra­tions fell in Ger­many (-4.6%), Italy (-4.7%) and France (-2.1%).

New lor­ry reg­is­tra­tions in the EU also rose by 9.8% to a total of 171,933 units. This growth was dri­ven by strong demand for heavy goods vehi­cles (+11.1%) and a 2.8% rise in reg­is­tra­tions of medi­um-duty goods vehi­cles. Among the key mar­kets, Poland (+25.9%) and Spain (+13.2%) record­ed the strongest growth, with Ger­many also mak­ing a con­tri­bu­tion (+7.1%). In con­trast, the French mar­ket remained rel­a­tive­ly sta­ble com­pared with the first half of 2025.

Sales of new bus­es in the EU rose by 22.7% to 22,590 units. Among the largest mar­kets, Italy record­ed the strongest growth (+51.6%), fol­lowed by Ger­many and France (both +21.6%). Spain was the only major mar­ket to record a decline (-8.5%), whilst Poland post­ed a remark­able increase of 78.0%, there­by ris­ing to become the EU’s fourth-largest bus mar­ket.

New commercial vehicles by drive type

Light com­mer­cial vehi­cles

Diesel remained the pre­ferred choice for buy­ers of new deliv­ery vans in the EU, although reg­is­tra­tions fell by 1.8 per cent to 587,272 units and the mar­ket share dropped from 82 per cent in the first half of 2025 to 79.1 per cent. Plug-in elec­tric vans rose by 41.6 per cent, reach­ing a mar­ket share of 13.2 per cent – up from 9.5 per cent in the first half of 2025. Petrol mod­els record­ed a decline of 21.2 per cent, reduc­ing their mar­ket share to 3.8 per cent (down from 4.9 per cent). Reg­is­tra­tions of hybrid deliv­ery vans saw strong growth (+31.7 per cent), but account­ed for only 3.3 per cent of the EU mar­ket.

Heavy com­mer­cial vehi­cles

Diesel main­tained its dom­i­nance in the lor­ry mar­ket in the first half of 2026. Diesel lor­ries account­ed for 92.1% of new reg­is­tra­tions in the EU, rep­re­sent­ing an increase of 9.3% since the start of the year. Plug-in elec­tric lor­ries rose by 47.7% and secured 4.8% of the mar­ket (com­pared with 3.6% in the first half of 2025). Ger­many (+88.5 per cent), the Nether­lands (+44.5 per cent) and France (+43.7 per cent) drove this growth, togeth­er account­ing for 74 per cent of all reg­is­tra­tions of plug-in trucks in the EU.

Bus­es

New reg­is­tra­tions of plug-in elec­tric bus­es in the EU rose by 56.8 per cent, with their mar­ket share increas­ing from 21.6 per cent to 27.7 per cent. Italy, now the EU’s largest bus mar­ket, led this growth, with reg­is­tra­tions more than qua­dru­pling. Reg­is­tra­tions of diesel bus­es also rose by 11% and main­tained a mar­ket share of 58.2%. Fur­ther­more, reg­is­tra­tions of hybrid elec­tric bus­es grew by 10.7% and now account for 6.1% of the mar­ket.

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Picture of Erwin Kartnaller

Erwin Kartnaller

Erwin Kartnaller has been a fixture in Swiss trade journalism covering commercial vehicles and mobility for over four decades. After 16 years working for daily newspapers and family magazines, he moved into trade media and wrote for virtually every commercial vehicle magazine published in Switzerland, with very few exceptions. For nine and a half years, he was editor-in-chief of the Swiss Commercial Vehicle Association ASTAG's magazine, where his precise language and clear stance had a lasting impact on industry communication. This was followed by positions in the automotive industry, including at Eurotax autoinformation and aboutFLEET. He also wrote specialist articles for Auto&Wirtschaft and Auto Bild Schweiz. With his platform www.ekacom.com (http://www.ekacom.com/), he continued to wield his “sharp pen” – an independent voice for clear words and pointed commentary. In his last professional role as editor-in-chief of Polyscope, he immersed himself in the world of electronics – a field that is increasingly shaping mobility. Today, after his active professional life, Erwin Kartnaller is once again devoting himself entirely to his passion on the mobility-360.ch platform: mobility in all its facets.
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