By Andy Picton, chief commercial vehicle editor at Glass’s
The number of new light commercial vehicles (LCVs) joining UK roads grew 2.4% with 26,974 new vans, pickups and 4x4s registered in October.
The market has now risen for three months in a row and recorded its best October in three years. A total of 294,313 LCVs have now been registered year-to-date, a 3.5% increase on the 284,321 units registered to the same point last year.
Demand for LCVs was positive except in the pick-up sector and vans in the >2.5-3.5t Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) sector, where demand fell 18.9% and 2.7%, respectively.
The later though continues as the most popular sector with its 26,974 registrations representing 65.5% of all units registered during the month.
New Vans in the below 2.0-tonne sector totalled 683 units, a 55.9% increase on October 2023 whilst vans between 2.0 and 2.5 tonnes GVW category recorded a 49.6% rise over the same period to 5,688 units.
The recent announcement in the Budget to tax double cab pick-ups as cars for benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax and capital allowances purposes beyond April 2025, will be seen as a major blow and possibly a death-knell for this popular sector.
With demand for new pick-ups and 4x4s already down 4.35% on 2023, the move will likely see cancellation of orders or further costs added to farming, construction and utilities industries as well as the self-employed who rely on these rugged off-road vehicles to assist their businesses.
Further, as the Budget statement was unclear, could also penalise any upcoming electric double cab pick-up that is offered with a payload more than 1-tonne.
Ford once again performed strongly claiming three of the top five registration spots in October in the Transit Custom, Transit and Ranger pickup.
Stellantis Pro One saw the Peugeot Partner finish third, the Vauxhall Combo sixth (1,287 units), the Peugeot Expert seventh (1,175 units) and the Vauxhall Vivaro ninth (895 units).
The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter claimed fourth, whilst the remaining top ten spots were taken by the Renault Trafic in 8th with 1,065 units and the Volkswagen Crafter in 10th with 839 units.
Top five LCV registrations
| YTD 2024 | October 2024 | October 2023 | |||
| Ford Transit Custom | 38,917 | Ford Transit Custom | 3,400 | Ford Transit Custom | 2,841 |
| Ford Transit | 26,438 | Ford Transit | 2,921 | Ford Transit | 2,148 |
| Ford Ranger | 16,819 | Peugeot Partner | 1,821 | Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 1,743 |
| Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 15,805 | Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 1,553 | Volkswagen Transporter | 1,658 |
| Vauxhall Vivaro | 14,156 | Ford Ranger | 1,407 | Vauxhall Vivaro | 1,527 |
Electric van registrations
As part of the overall market growth, BEV registrations increased by a massive 57.3% in October with 2,143 units up to 3.5t GVW registered compared with 1,362 units 12 months ago.
This represents a monthly market share of 7.9%. YTD, 15,087 units have been registered. This is down 3.6% on the October 2023 total of 15,658 units.
The BEV market share currently stands at 5.1% of the overall market, down 0.4% on 12 months ago.
October saw demand for BEVs increase for the first time in five months, however, with 10 months of the year completed, the overall market share of 5.1% is just over 50% of the required ZEV Mandate target of 10% needed for 2024.
The Autumn Budget’s extension to Plug-in Van Grant (PIVG) for a further year has been a welcome footnote, with an additional £120m of funds earmarked.
Although the extension will provide welcome assistance to those looking to start the transition to BEVs, this alone will not see a massive increase in electric van sales.
The current high vehicle prices, lack of van specific infrastructure and lack of effective support from the new government are reasons why fleet operators do not see a move to electric as commercially viable.
Battery electric LCV registrations up to 3.5t GVW
| Manufacturer: October 2024 |
Range: October 2024 |
Manufacturer YTD EV Sales |
YTD EV Regs as % of Overall Sales |
||||
| Peugeot | 755 | Peugeot e-Partner | 405 | Peugeot | 3,513 | BYD | 100 |
| Volkswagen | 273 | Peugeot e-Expert | 350 | Vauxhall | 2,117 | Peugeot | 15.3 |
| Toyota | 236 | Volkswagen ID Buzz Cargo | 273 | Ford | 2,062 | Nissan | 13.6 |
| Ford | 203 | Toyota Proace City Electric | 231 | Volkswagen | 2,049 | Maxus | 12.3 |
| Renault | 174 | Ford E-Transit Custom | 203 | Renault | 1,253 | Toyota | 8.6 |
Peugeot accounted for 35% of all new BEVs in October registering 755 units. Volkswagen were second with 273 units (12.7%) and Toyota claimed third with 236 units (11.0%). Ford placed fourth with 203 units (9.5%) and Renault fifth with 174 units (8.1%).
By range, the Peugeot e-Partner was top registering 405 units, followed by its sibling the Peugeot e-Expert with 350 units.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz Cargo van was third with 273 units, the Toyota Proace City Electric was fourth with 231 units and the Ford E-Transit Custom placed fifth with 203 units.
The remaining top ten spots were filled by the Renault Kangoo E-Tech (167 units), the Nissan Townstar EV (82 units), the Mercedes-Benz eVito (70 units), the Vauxhall Vivaro Electric (46 units) and Vauxhall Combo Electric (45 units).
After 10 months, BYD (100%), Peugeot (15.3%), Nissan (13.6%) and Maxus (12.3%) are currently the only manufacturers to meet the minimum 10% ZEV mandate sales share target for 2024.
Closing in is Toyota with 8.6%, whilst further adrift is Vauxhall with 7.2%, Volkswagen (6.6%) and Renault (5.4%).
The remaining manufacturers in the top ten, Mercedes-Benz (4.9%) and Citroen (4.8%) still have work to do.
An additional 120 BEVs from Ford, Iveco, Maxus, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Renault and Renault Trucks (37 units – October 2023) between 3.5t-4.25t GVW, were registered as part of the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme (VETS) and contributed towards an overall market share of 8.4% for the month.
However, YTD demand has fallen 1.9% on 12 months ago, with the 16,451 units registered reflecting an overall BEV market share of only 5.6%.
The Plug-In hybrid van market is growing slowly too, with Ford and Toyota registering 534 units between them during October.
Ford registered 359 Transit Custom PHEVs and Toyota 175 Corolla Commercials. YTD, 1,652 Toyota Corolla Commercial, 916 Ford Transit Custom PHEVs and 3 LEVC VN5 vans have been registered.
Used LCV market overview
Finding stock at auction is not an issue, finding quality is. As buyers fight over the best examples, much of the harder worked and higher mileage stock is being ignored in favour of nicer cleaner vehicles that can be turned more quickly.
Vendors now seem to be more in tune with market sentiment, resulting in a marked improvement in conversion rates over the last couple of months.
Retail buyers though continue to see higher finance rates affect their buying power, resulting in vehicles not being replaced as regularly.
The number of vehicles sold during October remained similar to September but was up over 7.5% on 12 months ago.
Due to a poorer combination of volume, mileage and condition, the average selling price fell by 9.2% over the month and 21.5% year-on-year.
The current used market though remains buoyant with an average selling price 19.2% higher than in October 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Of the vehicles sold at auction in October, 74.1% were Euro 6 at an average age of 58.5 months and average mileage of 73,030 miles (73,419 miles in August).
Used electric vans continue to underperform, with sales contributing to only 0.6% of the overall market, down from 1.05% in September.
The average age of these vehicles increased to 81 months, up from 69.9 months, whilst average mileage also increased to 39,316 miles from 34,104 miles.
Euro 5 stock made up the remaining 25.3% of sales, up 5.0% on the previous period.
October in detail
The average age of sold stock increased from 77 months to 84.1 months and was 1.1 months older than October 2023.
Average mileage over the month also increased by 1.4% to 81,033 miles but was 1.9% lower than 82,584 miles of 12 months ago.
Sales of medium sized vans continue to outweigh all others at auction, accounting for 37.6% of all auction sales in the month. Small vans accounted for 30.1% and large vans 21.2%.
Volumes of sold 4x4 pick-up stock accounted for only 11.1% of all sales – up 0.2%, but recorded the highest average sale price at £11,471, down 6.6% on September.
Large vans covered more distance than any other vehicle type at an average of 89,424 miles. This was up nearly 3,600 miles on the previous month and 200 miles on 12 months ago.
First-time conversion rates improved by 8.6% to a particularly creditable 81.8% overall. This was 5.2% higher than 12 months ago.
Broken down, the best conversion rates for the month were achieved in the 4x4 pick-p sector at 85.4% (up 7.5%), whilst a conversion rate of 79.9% (up 2.9%) in the medium panel van sector returned the lowest.
Used vehicles observed for sale in the retail market last month remained static at 46,530 units. Of these, 93.6% were diesel models, 2.0% were petrol, 0.6% were PHEV and 3.5% were BEVs. 37.6% of all vehicles on sale were valued at £20,000 or more, while 35.4% 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 increased by 1.1% to 21.8% of the overall market, whilst 5.2% were on sale for less than £5,000.
White vehicles make up 50% of all those observed for sale followed by grey at 16.0% and silver at 10.3%.
The average age of all vehicles in October remained static at 57 months whilst average mileage fell to 57,825 miles, a fall of 2.0% on September.
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