By Andy Picton, specialist RV analyst at Glass’s
The new light commercial vehicle (LCV) market closed the year with an 8.3% drop in registrations for December.
Some 27,221 new LCVs were registered, with a total of 351,834 units entering service during 2024. This was a 3% increase on the 341,455 units registered during 2023.
For December, demand was down across all sectors except in the vans < 2.0 tonne GVW sector, where registrations increased 13.6%.
Vans > 2.0 - 2.5 tonnes GVW category recorded a 4.1% decline or 201 units over the same period last year, whilst 2.2% fewer new vans in the vans >2.5-3.5t GVW hit the road.
This sector registered 17,653 new units and continues to be the most popular representing 64.8% of all units registered during the month.
The pick-up sector though fell by over a quarter, finishing 28.1% down on December 2023.
2024 saw registrations grow in every van weight class, with uptake of the largest vans up 2.1% to represent 66.3% of the market.
Demand for medium and small sized vans also grew, up 12.3% and 44.5% to 65,148 units and 8,606 units respectively.
The only disappointment was the -8.3% drop in new pick-up registrations to 37,582 units.
The Government’s decision to tax double cab pick-ups as cars for benefit-in-kind and capital allowance purposes from April this year, could see this total could fall further in 2025.
Farming and construction to utilities and sole traders who depend on these vehicles, could now face additional costs and hold off investing as a result. This will keep more polluting vehicles on the road and, counterproductively, reduce tax revenues.
Ford led the way in 2024 claiming all three podium positions for the year. Another strong performance saw the Ford Transit Custom finish the highest registered LCV in the UK and third in overall vehicle sales behind the Ford Puma and Kia Sportage.
December saw the Ford Transit Custom again lead the way, with the Ford Transit in fourth place and the Ranger pickup in seventh (1,193 units).
Stellantis Pro One saw the Vauxhall Vivaro finish second and the Peugeot Partner in eighth (952 units), whilst the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and the Isuzu D-Max finished third and fifth respectively.
The remaining spots were taken by the Renault Trafic in sixth (1,429 units) and the Volkswagen duo of Crafter (923 units) and Transporter (852 units) in ninth and tenth.
Top five LCV registrations
| YTD 2024 | December 2024 | December 2023 | |||
| Ford Transit Custom | 46,967 | Ford Transit Custom | 3,715 | Ford Transit Custom | 3,298 |
| Ford Transit | 31,322 | Vauxhall Vivaro | 1,790 | Vauxhall Vivaro | 2,237 |
| Ford Ranger | 19,695 | Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 1,595 | Ford Transit | 2,227 |
| Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 18,753 | Ford Transit | 1,524 | Ford Ranger | 1,704 |
| Vauxhall Vivaro | 18,581 | Isuzu D-Max | 1,522 | Renault Trafic | 1,483 |
Electric van registrations
Battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations to 3.5t GVW increased by 10.4% in December with 3,271 units registered compared to 2,964 units 12 months ago. This represents a monthly market share of 12%.
BEV registrations for the full year totalled 20,509 units, up 1.3% on the 2023 total of 20,253 units. The 2024 BEV market share totalled 5.8% of the overall market, 0.1% down on 12 months ago.
The last four months of 2024 saw eLCV registrations exceed 2,000 units every month for the first time ever, exceeding the same period in 2023 by 1,068 units – a growth of 12%.
However, this doesn’t detract from the fact that BEV registrations for 2024 were lower than 2023 and were woefully behind ZEV Mandate targets.
Although manufacturers continue to invest heavily in zero-emission vehicles, a lack of a van-specific infrastructure and effective Government support continues to blight the transition and reflects the huge challenge ahead in fast-tracking operators towards battery electric light commercial vehicles.
Battery electric LCV registrations up to 3.5t GVW
| Manufacturer: December 2024 |
Range: December 2024 |
Manufacturer YTD EV Sales |
YTD EV Regs as % of Overall Sales |
||||
| Ford | 1,427 | Ford E-Transit Custom | 1,243 | Peugeot | 4,105 | BYD | 100 |
| Volkswagen | 674 | Volkswagen ID Buzz Cargo | 674 | Ford | 3,307 | Peugeot | 15 |
| Maxus | 304 | Ford E-Transit | 184 | Volkswagen | 3,071 | Maxus | 14.8 |
| Toyota | 253 | Peugeot e-Expert | 151 | Vauxhall | 2,454 | Nissan | 13.4 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 209 | Toyota Proace Electric | 132 | Toyota | 1,439 | Toyota | 9.6 |
Ford accounted for 43.6% of all new BEVs registered up to 3.5t GVW in December, Volkswagen 20.6% and Maxus 9.3%.
Toyota placed fourth with 7.7% and Mercedes-Benz fifth with 6.4%. Places 6-10 were taken by Peugeot with 170 units (5.2%), Nissan 74 units (2.3%), Citroen 51 units (1.5%), Renault 48 units (1.45%) and Vauxhall 34 units (1%).
By range, the recently launched Ford E-Transit Custom was top registering 38% of all new electric vans in the month.
Positions 6-10 were filled by the Mercedes-Benz e-Vito (128 units - 3.9%), the Toyota Proace City Electric (121 units - 3.7%), the Maxus eDeliver 9 (90 units - 2.7%), the Maxus eDeliver 3 (88 units - 2.69%) and the Maxus eDeliver 7 (75 units - 2.3%).
At year end, BYD (100%), Peugeot (15%), Maxus (14.8%) and Nissan (13.4%) were the only manufacturers to meet the minimum 10% ZEV mandate sales share target for 2024.
Just missing out was Toyota with 9.6% and Volkswagen on 8.2%. Further adrift was Vauxhall on 6.7%, Mercedes-Benz on 5.4%, Renault Trucks on 5.3% and Renault on 5.0%.
An additional 111 BEVs from Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Iveco, Maxus, Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi-Fuso, (24 units – December 2023) between 3.5t-4.25t GVW, were registered as part of the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme (VETS) and contributed towards a monthly market share of 12.4%.
Some 1,646 units were registered during 2024 compared to 1,203 in 2023, but resulted in an identical overall market share of 6.3%.
The plug-in hybrid van market saw Ford and Toyota register 476 units between them during December. Ford registered 300 Transit Custom PHEVs and 2 Transit Connect PHEVs, whilst Toyota registered 174 Corolla Commercials.
For the full year, Toyota registered 2,015 Corolla Commercials, Ford 1,725 Transit Custom PHEVs and 2 Transit Connect PHEVs and LEVC, 3 VN5 vans.
Used LCV market overview
The used auction market has been healthy overall this year with stock levels and buyer demand all closely aligned.
Attendances at physical auctions has been on the rise as lower prices have attracted more buyers.
In addition, vendors have been more in tune with market sentiment, resulting in first-time conversion rates rising 7.5% to 83.8% over the year.
With the shorter working month, the number of vehicles sold during December fell by over 31% on November but was up over 9.4% on 12 months ago.
A better mix of stock and a higher level of interest saw the end of year average selling price at its highest since September, increasing 3.1% over November. However, this figure was down 16% on December 2023.
December in detail
The average age of sold stock fell from 83.3 months in November to 80.3 months but was 2.2 months older than a year ago.
Average mileage during the month increased 0.3% to 80,058 miles but remained 3.2% lower than December 2023.
Of the vehicles sold at auction in December, 78.3% were Euro 6 with an average age of 59.6 months and average mileage of 72,579 miles (72,676 miles in November).
Sales of used electric vans remained static at 0.9% of the overall market.
The average age of these vehicles fell to 70.7 months from 75.8 months, with average mileage of 27,234 miles down from 37,867 miles.
Euro 5 stock made up the remaining 20.8% of sales, falling 2.1% on the previous period.
Sales of medium sized vans at auction ended the year strongly, accounting for 39.5% in the month. Small vans accounted for 28.9% and large vans 20.7%.
Volumes of 4x4 pick-ups sold accounted for only 10.8% of all sales, but recorded the highest average sale price at £12,444, up 4% on November.
Large vans covered more distance than any other vehicle type at an average of 87,171 miles. This was an increase of nearly 3,000 miles on the previous month but a near 10,400 mile decrease annually.
Overall first-time conversion rates increased for the eighth straight month to end the year at 83.8%. This is a 1.1% increase on November.
Broken down, conversion rates across the sectors were split relatively evenly.
Possibly down to the colder and wetter weather, the best conversion rate was achieved in the 4x4 pick-up sector at 84.5% (up 1.5%), followed by the small van sector at 84.4% (up 1.4%) and the medium van sector at 83.9% (up 1.0%).
A conversion rate of 82.2% (up 0.9%) in the large van sector returned the lowest.
Used vehicles observed for sale in the retail market last month reduced by 4.50% to 44,100 units. Of these, 93.3% were diesel models, 2.0% were petrol, 0.5% were PHEV and 3.8% were BEVs.
Some 37.7% of all vehicles on sale were valued at £20,000 or more, while 35.8% were on sale for between £20,000 and £10,000.
At the lower end of the market, those vehicles on sale between £10,000 - £5,000 reduced by 0.4% to 21.5% of the overall market, whilst 5.0% were on sale for less than £5,000.
White vehicles make up just under half of all vans on sale at 49.3%, followed by grey at 16.4% and silver at 10.4%.
Average age remained steady at 58 months and average mileage increased slightly to just over 58,000 miles.
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