EVERYONE wants to buy a new van it seems. While the UK car industry is celebrating an almost 11 per cent rise in registrations in 2013, van dealers did even better.
According to figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), registrations in the LCV sector jumped by 13.1 per cent over the past year.
In total 271,073 vans were registered, the best performance in the market for five years, which led SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes to look forward confidently to 2014. “We expect the forthcoming launches of several new light commercial vans to deliver further growth in this important sector,” Hawes said.
He has good reason to be upbeat as the market currently has its foot firmly on the accelerator – in November registrations jumped 20 per cent, then soared by 32.5 per cent in December.
And while some critics argue that numbers of registrations do not necessarily reflect what’s actually happening in showrooms, Britain’s biggest van brands have not missed the opportunity to broadcast how well they are doing.
Ford has always had the major weapon in its Transit – best-seller in the LCV sector since it first launched in 1965. In 2013, Transit sales climbed 11 per cent to 52,441, helped by the new Custom model that found almost 11,000 buyers on its own.
Ford’s number crunchers counted a total of 72,238 CVs over the year, the blue oval claiming just over a quarter of the entire market. And 2014 should be even better with the arrival of the all-new Transit that Business Vans will review next month.
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