According to a new report by global research and analysis company Dataforce, the European heavy commercial vehicles (HCV) market has rebounded in 2022, as ongoing supply issues across the world have built acquisition pressures, particularly in the construction and agriculture sectors.

Dataforce research reports the Eurpopean HCV market comprises around 300,000 registration every year — 20% of the commercial vehicle market — but a much higher part in market revenue, due to higher price / unit.  

In the first half of 2023, Dataforce analysts see further market improvement of 17% growth. Leading brands are Mercedes Benz Trucks with just under 33,000 vehicles, followed by MAN with 25,000 and Volvo Trucks with 22,900 vehicles. Semi-trailer trucks are sales-dominant with 50% of the market, followed by buses with 7%.

As with passenger cars, Germany is the largest European HCV market. In the first half of the year, almost 50,000 units were registered, representing 28.6% of the market, according to Dataforce figures. With a large footprint in the transportation sector, Eastern Europe is more prominent in the HCV market than the passenger cars segment. For example, Poland’s HCV registrations represent 19,8% of the market, while the nation’s passenger car market is just 3.6%. For Romania, the HCV versus passenger car relation is 2.5% vs 1.1%.

The new European HCV report augments Dataforce analysis of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. Dataforce defines the HCV market as the vehicles with gross vehicle weight of over 7 tons, and which includes M3, N2 and N3 vehicles. According to the company, the most important information it offers are the different tonnage (weight) classes and the different body styles (semi-trailer, flatbed, bus, tipper, etc.). For most countries the data dates from 2015, enabling historical trend analysis.