{"id":6041,"date":"2014-04-07T13:56:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T13:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=6041"},"modified":"2014-04-07T13:57:42","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T13:57:42","slug":"van-demand-steps-up-14-6-in-march-on-14-plate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6041","title":{"rendered":"Van demand steps up 14.6% in March on 14-plate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

The March and September registration plate changes typically account for a surprising third of the annual van market, and van registrations rose by 14.6% in March to 50,064.<\/p>\n

The increase takes the total increase in new van registrations so far this year to 16%, compared to the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).<\/p>\n

UK van and truck registrations: 2014 and % change on 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nMarch<\/strong><\/td>\n% change<\/strong><\/td>\nYear-to-date<\/strong><\/td>\n% change<\/strong><\/td>\nRolling year<\/strong><\/td>\n% change<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vans<\/strong><\/td>\n50,064<\/td>\n14.6%<\/td>\n79,917<\/td>\n16.0%<\/td>\n282,108<\/td>\n14.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Trucks<\/strong><\/td>\n4,168<\/td>\n-16.5%<\/td>\n7,574<\/td>\n-24.7%<\/td>\n53,732<\/td>\n23.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n54,232<\/td>\n11.4%<\/td>\n87,491<\/td>\n10.8%<\/td>\n335,840<\/td>\n15.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Data courtesy of SMMT (www.smmt.co.uk<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Mike Hawes, the SMMT Chief Executive, says March’s van market outperformance was expected and even the stagnant, post Euro 6 truck market saw some benefit from the plate change:<\/p>\n

“The new 14-plate drove van numbers up, pushing the overall commercial vehicle market 11.4% ahead of 2013 to more than 54,000 units. Registration plate changes always prove popular with van buyers, so March and September numbers are typically more than double the average month, a trend continued this March as volumes rose 14.6% to above 50,000 units.<\/p>\n

Truck demand remained subdued as the influence of Euro-6 legislation continues to be felt across the sector, but the level of impact has lessened steadily since January and should be minimal by mid-year.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the graph below shows, van demand has really started to lift off<\/a> over the last six months, suggesting that the UK recovery may be the genuine item:<\/p>\n

\"SMMT

Truck registrations have stalled following a spurt of sales ahead of the introduction of Euro 6 emissions rules, but demand for new vans has been rising steadily since October, suggesting the market may be returning to health (graph courtesy of SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n

The rise in van registations is being led by larger models, too — while registrations of smaller, sub-2.0t vans fell by 18.5% in March, compared to the same period in 2013, demand for models between 2.0t and 2.5t rose by 55%, while registrations of vans between 2.5t and 3.5t rose by 16.9%, to 27,460 — more than half of all vans registered in March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Van registrations rose by 14.6% in March, as sales were boosted by the 14-plate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[310],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6044,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6041\/revisions\/6044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}