The new light commercial vehicle market followed an 8% fall in sales year-on-year in January with a small uptick in sales in February, according to numbers published this morning by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
New light van sales were up just over 1% in February, in what is a small volume month, coming ahead of the March plate-change and typically accounting for just some 5% of total yearly sales. Over 14,600 new light vans joined the UK road network last month.
Last month saw declining sales in the pick-up and small van (2.0 to 2.5 tonnes) categories, with registrations falling 55% and 15% respectively.
In contrast, there was a 64% boost in 4×4 registrations and an 8% sales growth in the large van (2.5 to 3.5 tonnes) segment – the latter accounting for the large majority of new LCV sales in the UK. The medium van (2.0 to 2.5 tonnes) category also saw solid growth, with registrations up 17%.
New all-electric (BEV) van uptake surged 44% in February when compared to the same month last year -electric vans accounting for around 14% of all LCV sales. This boost in all-electric LCV interest is certainly welcome, particularly as the government’s BEV sales target has been raised to 24% market share for 2026, up from 16% last year.
Good month, bad month
While the overall market was rather stagnant last month, it wasn’t the same story for everyone. Some brands with lower sales volumes than the industry leaders will be celebrating sales success after February.
Those brands of note are Renault, Land Rover and MAN – which grew their van sales by 41%, 69% and 64% respectively. Other above average performers include Renault Trucks and Volkswagen. These brands outperformed the overall LCV market by at least 10%.
Meanwhile, things were not as happy for Fiat, KGM, Iveco, Isuzu, Maxus, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Vauxhall. All of these brands underachieved against the overall market by at least 10%.
The following brands were about where you’d expect them to be: Citroën, Peugeot, Fuso, and Kia. All of these brands had results that were within +/- 10% of the overall market. Dominant market leader Ford recorded a respectable month of sales, with new LCV registrations up 5%.
New year, same sales leader
To pretty much no-one’s surprise, the Ford Transit Custom took the sales top spot in February – as it did in January and literally every month of 2025. That said, there are a few changes at the top. The larger Ford Transit is back up to second in the annual tble, leapfrogging the Vauxhall Vivaro and Volkswagen Transporter that fall to third and fourth.
The top ten includes some of the usual suspects like the Renault Trafic and Citroën Berlingo, but also a couple of new names. Usually loosing out to rivals from Ford or Stellantis brands, the Nissan Primastar recorded a top ten finish in January and remains in the annual top ten best-seller list.
You must be logged in to post a comment.