ANKARA

The EU commercial vehicles market continued to grow in May for the fourth consecutive month on the back of a low base of comparison due to last year's COVID-19 restrictions, a trade group said on Thursday.

In the 27-member bloc, commercial vehicle sales surged 51.3% year-on-year to 165,363 units in May, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).

Even after the strong gains, the figure was still over 30,000 below pre-pandemic levels

Spain saw the largest rise among four key markets with an 89.6% annual rise, followed by Italy (51.3%), Germany (46.4%) and France (28.4%).

The EU's demand for vans -- light commercial vehicles -- jumped 49.6% to 138,429 units last month.

Sales of new heavy trucks in the EU jumped by 74.9% to reach 20,601 units, while some 25,071 new heavy commercial vehicles were registered this May, up 64.6% from the same month last year.

"May demand for new buses and coaches in the EU was 18.1% higher than last year, with 1,863 units sold in total," the ACEA added.


In January-May, new commercial vehicle registrations in the bloc climbed 43.9% to 838,941 units.

"All four major EU markets improved their cumulative results: Italy (69.5%), France (55.2%), Spain (51.9%) and Germany (20.3%)," in the first five months of 2020, it said.