The news that as many as 500 new Mercedes-Benz trucks will join the fleet of the Lithuanian company Girteka during 2026 attracted significant public attention at the beginning of March. This order\u2014certainly one of the largest we will witness in Europe this year\u2014actually continues a trend from the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although in 2025 the market for new trucks experienced a considerable decline across Europe, several countries reported opposite developments. Lithuania stands out among them. Not only did the number of new registrations in the overall truck category in that country increase by more than half, but growth was even higher in the heavy truck segment (according to the classification of the European Automobile Manufacturers\u2019 Association\u2014over 16 tons).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is the boom in the Baltics, while Germany records a double-digit decline, the Netherlands plunges by 40%, and France is \u201ccoughing along,\u201d a surprise or an expected development?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s leave the answer to that question for the end and go step by step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The European Automobile Manufacturers\u2019 Association (ACEA) regularly publishes statistics on new registrations of commercial vehicles\u2014trucks, vans, and buses. These reports provide a reliable snapshot of the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest report completed the overview of 2025. It was yet another illustration of the difficulties faced by Europe\u2019s transport industry over the past year: the decline was noticeable in all categories except buses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although vans have often been more resilient than their larger counterparts, this time was different. New van registrations in the European Union fell by 8.8% compared to the previous year. The negative result was mainly driven by the three largest markets: France (-5.6%), Germany (-5.4%), and Italy (-5%). Among markets with more than 100,000 newly registered vans, only Spain recorded growth, by nearly 12%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest blow last year, however, was suffered by the Netherlands, where the number of new van registrations dropped by an astonishing 84%: from over 130,000 in 2024 to just over 20,000 in 2025. The Netherlands was also the \u201closer of the year\u201d in the category of new truck registrations (according to ACEA classification, all goods vehicles over 3.5 tons), where the decline was around 40%. Analysts assess that during 2025, the new vehicle market there practically collapsed. Still, the country remains among those with the largest total fleets in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the major players, Belgium (+7.6%) and Poland (+4.9%) were in positive territory, each with around 70,000 new van registrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while the sub-3.5-ton category showed mixed results, the truck market displays a much more uniform trend across countries\u2014albeit in a negative direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The total number of new truck registrations decreased by 6.2%, reaching 307,460 across the EU. This decline is primarily the result of weaker demand in two key segments\u2014medium and heavy trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Negative trends were present in all leading countries. Germany faced the most pronounced drop (-12.2%), followed by France (-9%), Spain (-3.6%), and Italy (-2.8%). In short, none of the main European markets managed to avoid the downward trend in this segment (we have already mentioned the Netherlands).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poland also recorded growth here (just under 7%), while Lithuania surged by as much as 58%. If we look at the heavy truck subcategory (over 16 tons), growth was nearly 60%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, let\u2019s return to the question from the beginning of the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analysts had already predicted strong annual results in the Baltics after the first months of 2025, and as time passed, it became clear they were right. The final outcome confirmed the dynamic development of Lithuanian transport companies despite the overall economic downturn across Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reports from specialized associations, as well as truck manufacturers, confirm that growth is almost entirely based on companies engaged in international road transport, which make up the dominant share of new vehicle purchases (Lithuania is not a local market, but rather a kind of transport hub, with its companies operating on a European level).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another explanation for the strong growth in 2025 is that it follows a weak 2024. The additional momentum thus came from a rebound effect, i.e., compensation for postponed investments from the previous year, as well as from the fact that a small number of large transport companies have a key influence on total demand in the country, amplifying fluctuations and leading to sharp increases (or declines).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first report of any year is always the most interesting. When ACEA soon publishes new data, it will be interesting to see how the turbulent start of 2026 affected the sale of commercial vehicles and whether the energy crisis has erased all the forecasts analysts had for this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some experts go so far as to say that diesel prices could accelerate the green transition and the shift to alternative vehicles. However, this may only apply to light commercial vehicles, while the market for electric trucks remains overshadowed by a lack of infrastructure. And not only in the short term, but also in the long run: unless governments and the EU take steps to speed up the development of the network, electric trucks will not be able to compete with diesel vehicles on a broader scale anytime soon.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The past year was marked by a decline in new registrations, but one country showed a completely opposite trend and record results.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":154399094,"featured_media":18901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1417,1589,1588,1586,1587,1585,1591,1590,1593,1592],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-bg_only","category-cz_only","category-de_only","category-es_only","category-pl_only","category-ro_only","category-rs_only","category-si_only","category-sk_only"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154399094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invoitix.com\/hu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}