{"id":6171,"date":"2014-05-07T14:12:46","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T14:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=6171"},"modified":"2014-05-07T14:12:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T14:12:46","slug":"van-registrations-edge-lower-in-april-as-demand-slips-for-small-vans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6171","title":{"rendered":"Van registrations edge lower in April as demand slips for small vans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van registrations fell by 0.6% in April, taking the total rise for the year to date to 12.2%, down from 16% in March<\/a>, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).<\/p>\n

Truck registrations continued to fall, following the\u00a0introduction of Euro 6 regulations, and sales were down by\u00a0almost 25% on April 2013, at just 2,718 units.<\/p>\n

As a result, overall CV sales fell by 4.2% in April, compared to the same period last year, although they remain up by 7.3% on the year to date, thanks to the\u00a0early surge in\u00a0new van registrations:<\/p>\n

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

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nApril<\/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>\n20,620<\/td>\n-0.6%<\/td>\n100,537<\/td>\n12.2%<\/td>\n281,977<\/td>\n11.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Trucks<\/strong><\/td>\n2,718<\/td>\n-24.9%<\/td>\n10,292<\/td>\n-24.8%<\/td>\n52,831<\/td>\n22.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n23,338<\/td>\n-4.2%<\/td>\n110,829<\/td>\n7.3%<\/td>\n334,808<\/td>\n13.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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

Interestingly,\u00a0Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, suggested that\u00a0van demand may have plateaued for this year (at least, that’s my interpretation of his comments, based on this month’s 12.2% YTD growth figure):<\/p>\n

“Ongoing robust demand for vans continued the year-to-date trend in line with SMMT’s revised van forecast for 2014, a forecast that should see the market grow more than 11% on 2013.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Small vans drag on sales<\/h3>\n

The decline in van registrations was not evenly split\u00a0across the different weight classes.\u00a0The big mover was the sub-2.0t van category, where new registrations fell by 13.8% in April, compared to the previous year.\u00a0A 2.5% decline in sales of 2.0t-2.5t also dragged on the total, and the\u00a00.5% rise in registrations of vans between 2.5t and 3.5t was not enough to offset these losses.<\/p>\n

Still, let’s look on the bright side —\u00a0sales in individual categories can be skewed from month-to-month by big orders,\u00a0a nd sales of commercial vehicles in all categories — including trucks — are now significantly higher than they were three years ago, as this graph shows:<\/p>\n

\"UK

UK CV registrations Jan 2010 to date (courtesy of SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest UK van registrations from the SMMT show that registrations fell by 0.6% in April, reducing the year-to-date gain to 12.2%, down from 16% in March.<\/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\/6171"}],"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=6171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6173,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6171\/revisions\/6173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}