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Ford volume drops dramatically
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Vauxhall helps boost Stellantis performance
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Van electrification up 26% – but short of target
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New Kia van brand makes debut in the van charts
FORD is such a large part of the LCV market that any change in its performance can have a significant impact on the total market numbers.
January new commercial vehicle registrations were the perfect example of this.
Headline figures for the first month of 2026 revealed a market that was down nearly 8% compared with January 2025. However, Ford was down by almost a third, equivalent to losing more than 2,100 units. A large proportion of these are thought to have been Ranger pick-ups which surged a year ago ahead of April 2025’s BIK tax change.
Take Ford’s drop out of the figures and the market was actually up nearly 6%. It’s thought Ford’s numbers, alongside pick-up market shrinkage, were due to pull-forward to register as many BEV LCVs in 2025 as possible.
Ford’s drop also had a significant impact on market shares, not only for Ford, but also on the second and third biggest LCV brands Vauxhall and Volkswagen. Both brands achieved 12% market share against their sub-10% shares in January a year ago.
Ford, which typically takes at least a third of the LCV market, saw its share tumble to 27.8% for January. A year ago it was at 37.2%.
Vauxhall leads Stellantis uptick
With or without Ford, the performance wasn’t a good one for the whole market because January last year was more than 10% down on 2024. So even without Ford’s drop, any gain is somewhat muted.
Stellantis had a positive month, up 4.3%. Vauxhall carried the group and topped the charts for volume gained with a 616 unit increase in registrations. Citroen gained eight vans over January 2025, however Fiat was down 37 units to 245 LCVs and Peugeot dropped 295 registrations.
It’s worth noting that Stellantis was very close to overtaking Ford in January, with its quartet of brands registering 4,564 vans against Ford’s total of 4,887.
Nissan and Renault were second and third biggest volume climbers in January, a performance that comes ahead of new product for both brands due later in 2026.
Kia’s first full month of LCV registrations saw it take 1.3% of the market with 216 LCVs.
Source: SMMT
Top 5 fastest growing brands by volume YTD
Bottom 5 fastest falling brands by volume YTD
1 Vauxhall 616
2 Nissan 580
3 Renault 301
4 Volkswagen 299
5 Kia 216
5 Maxus -181
4 Peugeot -295
3 Mercedes -372
2 Toyota -485
1 Ford -2,195
Electrification rises 26% in January
The 2026 ZEV Mandate target for van manufacturers is 24%. 2025 ended on a BEV share of less than 10% and in January the electric van mix was 10.4%. Comparing January 2026 with January 2025 showed a volume rise of 26%, but still significantly short of the target.
While manufacturers have been able to avoid punitive government fines for missing targets (2025’s goal was 16% EV) by borrowing from future registrations or balancing with lower CO2 figures, it now looks increasingly likely that 2026 could see manufacturers resort to buying credits from rivals to avoid fines.
On the back of January’s total, the SMMT has also revised down its forecast for the year to 321,000 LCVs. That’s a 1.9% growth over 2025, but down from its previous forecast, from October 2025, of 335,000 vans. Part of this forecast includes a downward revision to the BEV mix forecast which it now thinks will come in at 13.1% at the end of the year, against a previous expectation of 14%.
Read our new van market analysis of December 2025 registrations
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Tristan Young is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years’ experience reporting on the automotive industry focussing predominantly on fleet and retail. As a self-confessed petrol-head, Tristan has a weakness for car classifieds. When he’s not writing about the automotive industry, he can usually be found outdoors with a small pack of border collies.
