According to the data, the increase for October was seen in most segments, except for buses and coaches, and continued an upward trend commenced in March.

Ten months into the year, EU registrations of commercial vehicles were up by 6.6% to a total of 1.45 million units, mainly lifted by demand for vans.

Looking at New Light Commercial Vehicles up to 3.5t – "vans" – in October, 125,914 new vans were registered in the EU, or 7.4% more than in the same month last year. Looking at the major markets, France (+16.0%), Germany (+16.2%) and the UK (+22.3%) posted a solid increase while the results in Italy (-6.1%) and Spain (-14.9%) were negative.

From January to October, the EU totalled 1,224,023 new van registrations, or 8.5% more than over the same period a year ago. France (+12.5%) remained the largest market, followed by the UK (+18.7%), Germany (+12.9%), Italy (+8.4%) and Spain (+10.6%).

For New Heavy Commercial Vehicles over 16t (excluding Buses & Coaches) – "heavy trucks" – October results in the EU were 53.7% higher than in October 2009, with 16,628 new vehicles registered. All major markets posted growth, ranging from 27.3% in Italy to 33.2% in the UK, 46.2% in France, 48.5% in Spain and 68.9% in Germany.

Year to date, new heavy truck registrations amounted to 135,792 units, or 1.4% less than in the first 10 months of last year. Performance in the main markets was diverse with Germany (+12.4%) and Spain (+17.8%) expanding while Italy (-4.8%), France (-9.9%) and the UK (-17.4%) declined.

For New Commercial Vehicles over 3.5t (excluding Buses & Coaches) – "trucks" – registrations were up 47.7% in October. The Netherlands (+89.4%), the UK (+79.9%) and Germany (+60.3%) recorded the largest increase among the most significant markets. France (+34.7%), Spain (+28.0%) and Italy (+11.4%) also performed better than in the same month last year.

From January to October, the EU market remained stable (-0.6%). Germany (+12.3%) and Spain (+9.0%) posted growth, while Italy (-7.0%), France (-8.2%), the UK (-9.8%) and the Netherlands (-23.7%) saw their markets contract.