- January 2025 van volumes drop by 20%…
- …but electric vans see boost in registrations
- Ford continues to dominate the commercial vehicle sector taking 37%
- All Stellantis brands in negative growth territory
THERE are 24 LCV brands listed by the SMMT. Yet 18 of those brands saw a drop in registrations in the first month of 2025, leaving just six in the black. Little wonder the overall market for the month was down more than 20%.
Conversely, electric van registrations saw a significant improvement taking 7.0% of the market, which is up from 4.9% a year ago. While the shrinking market will have helped the eLCV percentage, the final volumes were up 154 units to 1,340 eLCVs.
On the back of the news, the SMMT is forecasting an all-electric mix of 10.6% by year-end. This is still short of the Government’s mandated target for each manufacturer of 16%, up from 10% in 2024.
Volkswagen drops; Citroen disengagement continues; Ford cleans up
In a reversal of fortunes compared to the car market, the biggest faller in January was Volkswagen. The German brand took a hit of more than 1,100 units compared with January 2024. This was equivalent to more than a fifth of the total unit fall for the market.
Citroen has started 2025 in the way it ended 2024 with a poor result. Registrations were down 43% or 855 units in January.
Indeed, none of the Stellantis commercial vehicle brands were positive in January. Vauxhall was down more than 800 units, Fiat down more than 300 and Peugeot down 141 vans.
Brokers we spoke to blamed an inconsistent approach and poor communication for Citroen’s lacklustre performance and different approaches and tactics across the Stellantis group. One broker reported that offers, terms and availability changed so quickly and frequently that it caused distrust. It also ended up with the Stellantis brands competing against themselves.
Source: SMMT
Ford, however, may have problems in the car market, but it doesn’t in the light commercial vehicle sector. Registrations were only up 240 units, but in a shrinking market this meant a market share reaching 37% in January, up from 29% a year ago.
Ford also dominated the best selling models list with the Transit Custom, Ranger and (full size) Transit taking the top three places.
Top 5 brands by unit increase YTD
Bottom 5 brands by unit decrease YTD
1 Ford +240
2 MAN +141
3 KGM +67
4 Nissan +59
5 Ineos +46
5 Fiat -535
4 Mercedes -674
3 Toyota -813
2 Vauxhall -855
1 Volkswagen -1,103
Read our new van market analysis of December 2024 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.
