Mercedes leads the Heavy Commercial Vehicles market in Europe in May 2026

• The sales of HCVs increased by 1.7% during the fifth month of the year.
• Mercedes topped the brands ranking followed by Volvo Trucks and MAN.
• The electric heavy commercial vehicles gained traction.

Frankfurt, Germany – After the positive results posted during the first quarter of the year, the European new heavy commercial vehicles (HCV) market posted a small sales increase in May 2026. It corresponds to the data collected by Dataforce in 28 European nations*. According to it, the sales of HCV totaled 27,782 units last month, up by 2.0% compared to
the same month of last year. The German market was not only the biggest one but the main driver of the decline as its 5,740 units sold were 9.7% lower than the total sold in May 2025. In contrast, the sales
increased by 8.5% in Italy to 2,924 units, the third largest market. The European year-to date sales posted an increase of 8.5% to 144,949 units.

While the industry bought more heavy vehicles during the month, the sales mix by fuel-type showed interesting results.
The information confirmed that the diesel continued to be the most popular choice as the fuel type for the HCVs. Almost 9 in 10 of the HCVs sold in Europe in May were powered by a diesel engine. Nevertheless, the sales of this kind of vehicle fell by 9.7% compared to May 2025.
However, the protagonists of the month were the pure electric HCVs. They outsold the gas powered HCVs and became the second most popular fuel-type. In total, 2,217 fully electric HCVs were sold, up by 76% compared to May 2025. Therefore, their market shared soared from 4.3% a year ago to 8.0% last month.
Most of the electric heavy vehicles stayed in Norway (488 units), Italy (370), Germany (318), Netherlands (153), and Poland (145). As expected, these vehicles posted their highest market share in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, and Iceland.
Mercedes is ahead.
When it is about big trucks and buses, Mercedes-Benz is the leader in Europe. Last month, the German maker sold 5,314 heavy commercial vehicles across the region, up by 7.3%. It was also the top-selling brand in the year-to-date ranking with 27,050 units, up by 21% compared to January-May 2025. Its market share totaled 19.6% in May and 19.1% during the first five months.
The second and third positions were occupied by Volvo Trucks and Volkswagen’s MAN brand, respectively. The latter, whose volume decreased by 5.2%, was 239 units behind the former, up by 8.2%. Further down the brands ranking, Iveco Bus, and the Chinese Yutong, and BYD posted strong growth rates.

The top selling models.
The information shows that the FH Series from Volvo Trucks led the ranking by models in May. The brand sold 3,526 units, up by 9.1%. It was also the top-seller in the year-to-date count with 17,928 units. It was followed by the Mercedes Actros, and the MAN TGX.
Among the big performers there were: Renault Trucks T Series, Volvo Trucks FM Series, and the Iveco Bus E-Way. On the other hand, the big losers of the month include theScania R Series, Iveco S-Way, Renault Trucks D Series, and the Mercedes Atego.

*Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

You can find out more about the development of the Heavy Commercial Vehicles market inEurope in May 2026 by clicking here.