A resounding positive signal for this year's overall West European vehicle market, the region's heavy truck market kicked off with a notably hotter than expected 18.6 per cent surge in January's heavy truck sales. Drawing attention to the market's underlying trajectory, the 18,721 heavy trucks registered in Western Europe this January also marks the best sales turnout for four years for this particular month. West Europe's heavy truck market, a closely watched litmus test for the region's underlying economic wellbeing, started the new year in the manner it spent the whole of 2015, growing significantly faster than expected. Hot on the heels of respective month-on-month sales gains of 19.9 and 19.1 per cent during last year's November and December, January sales topped year earlier levels by a similar 18.6 per cent, with sales climbing to 18,721 units, according to ACEA data. Sending an upbeat optimistic signal to the auto-industry, its dealers and suppliers, regional heavy truck sales this January rose in all but two of the 18 markets regularly monitored by ACEA. A measure of this year's lively start, the majority of markets reported double-digit growth and the region's key major markets - Germany, the UK, France and Spain forged ahead by between 10.8 and 40 per cent. Italy, with a small 1.3 per cent dip in sales, stands out as the only notable exception to January's sunny truck sales bounce.
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