- February 2025 LCV registrations drop y-o-y as BIK impact on double cabs bites
- But underlying LCV market looks more positive
- Renault and Kia among top five fastest rising brands
- ZEV target looks miles wide of actual eLCV sales
IN April 2025, the tax rules for double-cab pickups changed and those registered after this point were scooped up into the car BIK rules – meaning they were taxed as cars with personal payments rocketing.
In the first few months of 2025 there was a huge push to beat this deadline. Now, a year later, not only are pickup sales lower overall, but they’re significantly lower than at their peak. The result; LCV registrations are down 55%. The biggest selling pick-up, the Ford Ranger, which typically featured in the top five best-selling LCVs, isn’t in the top 10 for February 2026, or for the year-to-date chart.
While the SMMT doesn’t reveal the all figures for all models, we do know that a year ago, 1,041 Rangers were registered in February (fourth best seller) and that this year, to get into the top 10 the pickup would have had to have hit more than 408 (the figure the 10th place Ford Transit Connect achieved). So that’s a drop of at least 600 units.
It’s a similar story for the year-to-date. A year ago the Ranger was the third best-selling LCV with 2,846 registered. Today, it’s not in the top 10 for which it would have needed more than 888 sales (to beat the Renault Master). That’s a likely drop of at least 2,000 units just for the Ranger.
This is a long-winded way of pointing out that while LCV registrations are subdued, they should be taken in a wider context. And remember, this will continue into March registrations too.
But overall, February’s LCV market is looking more positive
The new van market is far more positive than it first appears. Over the first two months of the year, new LCV registrations are running down 4%, that’s a drop of more than 1,300 units, which doesn’t look great, but, given the pickup distortion at the start of last year, this isn’t too worrying unless you’re Ford.
While Ford Pro was up in February and took nearly 37% of the market (more than the next four largest brands combined), so far this year it’s down nearly 2,000 units and without this pickup-powered drop, the market would be in positive territory.
Despite the pickup tax changes, February’s LCV market share was up just more than 1% on the same month last year. And while February is typically one of the smaller months for new vehicle registrations, it is a positive sign, and one that retailers that Broker News spoke to who said order take for March was going well and in-line with last year both for LCVs and cars.
Ford is joined at the bottom of the fastest fallers chart by Toyota, one of the few other brands to offer a pickup in the form of the Hilux. However, lack of performance isn’t all double-cab related. Mercedes, Peugeot and Iveco, which don’t offer pickups, make up the rest of the bottom five.
Source: SMMT
Top 5 fastest growing brands by volume YTD
Bottom 5 fastest falling brands by volume YTD
1 Renault +702
2 Volkswagen +562
3 Kia +509
4 Nissan +489
5 Land Rover +259
5 Iveco -234
4 Peugeot -289
3 Mercedes -604
2 Toyota -619
1 Ford -1,937
Electric LCV watch
This year, the ZEV Mandate target for LCV manufacturers is a 24% electric van mix. Year-to-date, the market is currently running at less than half that (11.8%). That’s also below 2025’s target of 16%.
Interestingly, with fewer pickups in the market this year (none of which is an EV) this should help the percentage mix for other types of LCV.
Read our new van market analysis of January 2026 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.
