Liam Nicholas, the Business Development Director at leading van leasing specialist Vanaways, sifts through the July 2026 SMMT new van registrations and finds reasons to be positive.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) July data is out, and some brands are showing strong year to date growth.
Interestingly, 72.9% of all new light commercial vehicles registered in July were actually large panel vans from 2.5 to 3.5 tonnes, which made up 20,842 of July’s 28,578 total registrations 🤯
- Land Rover +36.2%
- Peugeot +28.8%
- Volkswagen +27.1%
- Nissan +23.8%
- Renault +23.8%
- Mercedes-Benz +20.7%
2026 year to date leader board by model type
- Ford Transit Custom x 28,756 vans registered
- Ford Transit x 14,129 vans registered
- Volkswagen Transporter x 10,200 vans registered
- Mercedes-Benz Sprinter x 9,699 vans registered
- Peugeot Partner x 9,669 vans registered
- Renault Trafic x 8,955 vans registered
- Vauxhall Vivaro x 8,372 vans registered
EV adoption continues to move in the right direction, with registrations increasing c. 20% year on year in July and market share reaching 11.8%.
One of the biggest take aways I was please to find out was that Vanaways supplied 16.32% of one of the major manufacturer’s monthly registrations!!
All in all, it’s great to see another month of growth and long may it continue for us all in the van sales & leasing world for the rest of this year!

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