It has been a very positive September for commercial vehicle sales that, according to the latest figures presented by UNRAE, Unione Nazionale Rappresentanti Autoveicoli Esteri, recorded 17,670 vehicle registrations compared to 12,345 in the same month of 2022: a +43.1% increase that represents remarkable growth for the sector. However, this is a positive trend that has generally characterised the entire first part of the year. In the period from January to September, the increase was 16.5%, with 140,222 vehicles registered compared to 120,372 registered in the first nine months of 2022.

Nevertheless, sales of electric vehicles are not living up to the expectations, and only 3.6% of the vehicles sold are pure electric. This was an unexpected result given that last January the government had launched a series of incentives, designed specifically to replace commercial vehicle fleets, split into four brackets from 4,000 euros to 14,000 euros depending on the category of the vehicle purchased. To date, only 146 incentive applications have been submitted for the purchase of a new electric-powered vehicle against the scrapping of the old one registered in a class below Euro 4, and the fund has a surplus of 93% which can be used until the end of the year.

Perhaps, as UNRAE points out, the incentive system thus formulated alone is not sufficient to meet the decarbonisation goals of freight transport. Clear strategies are needed from the government and above all a well-defined plan for the infrastructure network, which is necessary and key to support the transition to electric-powered vehicles.

As far as motorisation is concerned, over the same period of time, diesel vehicled gained 3.7 points to reach a 79.8% share, LPG was fairly stable at 3.1% of the total, BEVs rose to 3.6% (+1.2 p.p.), and plug-ins to 0.7% of the total. Gas-fuelled vehicles fell to 4.2% share (-1.7 p.p.) and hybrid vehicles to 8.4% share (-2.4 p.p.). Methane-fuelled vehicles account for just 0.2% of the total market.

It should be noted that the weighted average CO2 emissions of vehicles with a weighted wt of up to 3.5 t in the 9-month period 2023 increased by 3.1% to 187.1 g/km (compared to 181.5 g/km in the same period 2022).

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