AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

IT'S VANTASTIC

6th September 2007
Page 56
Page 57
Page 56, 6th September 2007 — IT'S VANTASTIC
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

With almost all sectors showing growth, the new van market is in rude health. Colin Barnett analyses the latest sales figures.

The UK market for new heavy trucks is still struggling to recover from fiddler's elbow syndrome, driven by earlier legislative uncertainties and the subsequent failure of most manufacturers to meet the revival in demand. Lead times of more than a year are now not uncommon. By contrast, the van market continues its march from strength to strength.

Our latest analysis of the market, covering the first half of 2007, shows that sales are nudging 55% of the 2006 whole-year total, itself up 5.7% on the previous year.

Hatchvans and CDVs All sectors show a high level of polarisation, with the top three sellers taking the lion's share of the market, Nowhere is this more true than in the hatchvan and car-derived-van sector, where the top three take 86.5% between them. This is of course helped by the dominance of the Vauxhall Astravan, early production hiccups behind it. Its share rose from 56.0 to 63.2% since the beginning of the year, putting it back on target for Vauxhall's original annual target of 12,000 sales.

Vauxhall also retains third place with the Corsavan,just behind the Ford Fiesta, both increasing market share.The GM pair now account for four out of five small van sales. The baby sector is currently the most buoyant, with first half sales of 9,768 representing 64.1% of the 2006 total. On top of this, three players have left the sector: MG-Rover, Daihatsu and the one-time second-placed Suzuki.

Two models, the Peugeot 206 and Fiat ?unto, managed sales of seven units apiece, but both are about to be replaced by new models.

High-cube vans Once again this sector shows signs of slowing down, being the only one that hasn't yet reached 50% of last year's total.

The Ford Transit Connect stays top of the pile, albeit with a slightly reduced share of the smaller market, but below that it's all change.The Citroen Berlingo gained second spot by taking advantage of a rather poor showing by the Vauxhall Combo, which has managed to slide to an 18.7% market share from 22.6% in the first half of last year. The Volkswagen Caddy has performed the same move on the Peugeot Partner to gain fourth slot.

Lower down the rankings, the Fiat Doble is making steady progress and has now cracked the 5% mark. Now absent from the list is the Citroen C15 after a long and faithful career. Medium vans The sector comprised of van models around the 3,000kg GVW mark continues its healthy progress, first-half figures running at 54,8% of last year's increased full-year total.

All six best-selling models in this sector stay in the same order but the Vauxhall Vivaro, no longer in the first flush of youth, has managed to regain its slight loss of ground in the second half of last year to crack a highly impressive 10,000 units in the first half of this one.

While almost all the remaining contenders have maintained similar market shares, the real surprise is the Toyota Hiace, with an impressive effort taking it to 5 %.The LDV Pilot has gone the way of the C15 — and scores its final zero in the rankings. Large vans Yet again, the full-sized-van sector is on target for an increased year.No surprise at the top, as the Transit reinforces its dominance itis back up to a 48.2% share after a dip in the second half of 2006.

The M-B Sprinter continues its recovery and sits at 12.6%, but there is a lot of turmoil thereafter, Few observers would have expected the Fiat Ducato to move up three places to usurp its Iveco cousin from third place, passing the LDV Maxus in the process. Perhaps the most disappointing performance from the major players is the Volkswagen Crafter, which has fallen below both of the Citroen Relay/Peugeot Boxer twins.

In the forward-control subcategory, the Nissan Cabstar's strong showing late last year has faded in the face of another strong Toyota performance with the Dyna, which has overtaken a struggling Mitsubishi Fuso Canter.

A new name in the list is provided by the five Renault Maxitys, while the supply of LDV Convoys is just about over.

Pickups The top five in the pickup sector remain in the same order as before, masking the third and most impressive of Toyota's success stories. Proving that the market was ready for more powerful drivelines, the Hilux has already sold 92.5% of its 2006 total, and that was before Top Gear took it to the North Pole.The Mitsubishi L200 and Nissan Navara suffered as the Hiace's share rose from 8.7% in 2006 to 15.8%, and the third-placed Ford Ranger crept up from 17% to 20.5°/0.Proton managed six sales, and Tata I produced nine from goodness knows where. Overall picture No one will be surprised that Ford has retained the top spot in the manufacturers' table, consolidating its share slightly at 28.5 %.At 15.8% and 7.8% respectively,Vauxhall and Volkswagen have also increased their shares slightly. Citroen stays in fourth, but MercedesBenz (incorporating Mitsubishi Fuso) has recovered some lost ground to retake fifth with a 7.2% share, Nissan has dropped behind Peugeot in a reversal of last year's swap, mirrored by Fiat repassing Mitsubishi.A resurgentToyota has overtaken LDV and 'Yew to take 11th position with 3.2

Tags

People: Colin Barnett

comments powered by Disqus