According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, in 2021, 90.2% of all light commercial vehicles registered in the EU ran on diesel. Petrol accounted for 3.8% of the market and, although sales of electric and hybrid vehicles were up, they still represent only 4.6% of the total market.

Although there was an increase in demand for diesel vans, the market share fell from 92.4% in 2020.  Demand for diesel was up in Italy and France, but down in Germany and Spain. Despite this sales of new electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) – which include both battery electric vans and plug-in hybrids – grew by 63.2% across the EU to reach 46,853 vans sold. This strong double-digit growth resulted in an increase of market share from 2.0% in 2020 to 3.0% in 2021. ECV sales went up by 237.8% in Italy, 55.5% in Spain, 44.9% in Germany and 39.8% in France.