Opinion: LCV market continues to improve

By Andy Picton, chief commercial vehicle editor at Glass’s

The light commercial vehicle (LCV) market improved for the eleventh consecutive month, with 27,433 new vehicles registered in November – a 12.7% increase on twelve months ago.

Registrations year-to-date total 311,754 units, up 19.8% on 2022.

November recorded increases in each sector except those in the vans with a gross vehicle weight between 2.5t-3.5 tonnes. This sector alone still represented 66% of all units registered in the month but was 1.6% down on the 2022 total of 18,367 units.

The pickup sector recorded a 14.9% increase, whilst vans below 2.0 tonne and vans between 2.0 and 2.5 tonnes GVW rose by 10.4% and 161.1% respectively.

Another strong month for Ford in November, with the Transit Custom and Transit in first and second places with the Ranger pickup in fourth.

The Vauxhall Vivaro and Citroen Berlingo (1,311 units) from the Stellantis Group finished in third and seventh respectively, whilst the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter finished in fifth.

The Volkswagen Transporter claimed sixth (1,416 units), the Toyota Hilux eighth with 934 units, the Maxus Deliver 9 was ninth with 819 units and close behind was the Renault Trafic in tenth with 816 units.

Top five LCV registrations

YTD 2023		November 2023		November 2022
Ford Transit Custom	37,567	Ford Transit Custom	3,266	Ford Transit Custom	3,459
Ford Transit	26,053	Ford Transit	2,222	Ford Transit	3,218
Vauxhall Vivaro	18,240	Vauxhall Vivaro	1,783	Ford Ranger	2,193
Ford Ranger	16,975	Ford Ranger	1,624	Mercedes-Benz Sprinter	1,826
Volkswagen Transporter	16,168	Mercedes-Benz Sprinter	1,525	Volkswagen Transporter	1,583

Electric van registrations

Stellantis led the way with a 55.4% market share of the electric van market for November, with Vauxhall registering just under 51.5% of these and Peugeot 30.1%. Toyota registered 180 units (11% market share), Volkswagen 159 units (9.7%) and Mercedes-Benz 147 units (9%).

The Vivaro Electric was the best-selling model accounting for 405 units, nearly 25% of the whole electric van market.

As anticipated, registrations of electric van sales have dipped in the run up to the introduction of the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate on 3rd January 2024.

Whilst new electric vans sold from 3rd January 2024 will count towards new manufacturer targets of 10% for pure electric van sales, any sold up to 31 December 2023 are not. This gives an incentive to pause deliveries, delaying them until the New Year.

Battery electric vehicle registrations (BEV) totalled 1,631 units in November, down 17.4% on 12 months ago.

BEVs made up 5.9% of the overall market share for the month, down from 8.1% this time last year.

These latest set of figures mean that year-to-date BEV registrations of 17,289 units account for only 5.5% of the overall market, down 0.3% on the same point in 2022.

With diesel vehicles still making up 91.9% of all LCVs registered this year - only 0.1% down on YTD 2022 – there is still lots to do to convince buyers that EV is the way forward.

Used LCV market overview

In an improving marketplace that demands newer and therefore cleaner stock, over 70% of all sales at auction were Euro 6 models, with an average age of 53.5 months.

Average mileage was just over 71,300 miles and the average selling price was £10,825, 26% of all stock sold was Euro 5 or older, with an average age of 146 months, average mileage of nearly 108,500 miles and an average sale price of just over £3,000.

Used electric vans make up less than 2% of all sales at auction with an average sales price of nearly £5,400.

November in detail

The volume of sales decreased by 9.45% over the month, but average sales prices increased by over 6.5%, reflecting a steady market with younger stock, but with a lack of variety.

Although average sales prices have increased quite considerably over the month, they still sit 11% behind the same point last year.

The average age of all vehicles sold now sits at 77.9 months, up 5.1 months on October and 0.8 months on twelve months ago.

The average monthly mileage reduced by 2.83% to 80,248 miles, 1.35% lower than November 2022.

More medium vans were sold at auction than any other vehicle type, accounting for nearly 34% of all auction sales. Large vans accounted for 26.6% and small vans 26.3%.

Volumes of 4x4 stock sold accounted for only 13.4% of all sales, but attracted the strongest average sales prices of £13,389, up £240 on October.

Unsurprisingly, large vans covered more distance than any other type of stock at an average of 85,339 miles. This was over 6,200 miles less than October and reflects the younger model-mix currently on offer.

First-time conversion rates for November declined by 0.8% to 75.8% overall and sat 3.2% lower than at the same point 12 months ago.

Broken down, the best conversion rates were seen in the medium panel van sector at 80.1% (up 2.9% on October), whilst a conversion rate of 65.2% (down 10.2%) in the 4x4 pickup sector returned the lowest.

Used vehicles observed for sale in the wholesale market last month remained relatively static at 42,500 units. 45.7% of all vehicles on sale were valued at £20,000 or more, while 36% were on sale for between £20,000 and £10,000.

At the lower end of the market, those vehicles on sale in the £10,000 to £5,000 price bracket increased to 14% of the overall market, whilst 4.3% were on sale for less than £5,000.