Sales of light commercial vehicles across Europe during the first quarter of the year are up 5% on the same period last year, latest figures show. Total sales for the period January to March reached 565,136 units, up from 538,448 units for the same months in 2006.

A spokesman for the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which issued the figures, said: “With the exception of the UK (-0.1%), Portugal (-1.3%) and Greece (-6.8%), all other EU15 countries improved their figures (+3.8%). New member states remained on an upturn path (+22.4%), with two or three-digit growths posted by all countries except Hungary (-4.4%) and Lithuania (-1.2%).”

Country Jan-Mar 07 Jan-Mar 06 Variance
Austria 7,960 7,072 12.6%
Belgium 18,850 18,086 4.2%
Denmark 15,981 15,251 4.8%
Finland 4,887 4,376 11.7%
France 117,958 116,3612 1.4%
Germany 50,234 46,280 8.5%
Greece 6,316 6,779 -6.8%
Ireland 21,201 18,348 15.5%
Italy* 58,127 55,498 4.7%
Luxembourg 871 812 7.3%
Netherlands 24,094 20,529 17.4%
Portugal 16,620 16,833 -1.3%
Spain 69,498 69,085 0.6%
Sweden 10,107 8,833 14.4%
UK 87,269 87,384 -0.1%
EU15 509,973 491,527 3.8%
Iceland 597 674 -11.4%
Norway 10,515 9,582 9.7%
Switzerland 6,207 5,758 7.8%
EFTA 17,319 16,014 8.1%
Western Europe 527,292 507,541 3.9%
Czech Republic 12,824 10,445 22.8%
Estonia 1,099 764 43.8%
Hungary 4,819 5,041 -4.4%
Latvia 869 400 117.3%
Lithuania 877 888 -1.2%
Poland 11,049 8,427 31.1%
Slovakia 4,529 3,630 24.8%
Slovenia 1,778 1,312 35.5%
EU (new members) 37,844 30,907 22.4%
European Union** 547,817 522,434 4.9%
Total Europe (EU+EFTA) 565,136 538,448 5.0%