{"id":9842,"date":"2017-05-12T13:49:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T13:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=9842"},"modified":"2017-05-12T13:49:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T13:49:01","slug":"uk-van-registrations-fall-18-8-in-april-as-market-cools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/9842","title":{"rendered":"UK van registrations fall 18.8% in April as market cools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New van registrations fell by 18.8%\u00a0during April,\u00a0as buyers backed away from new vans after a record period of registrations in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that 22,625 new vans were registered in April 2017, 18.8% fewer than in April 2016. In reality, it always seemed likely\u00a0to me that\u00a0the\u00a0registrations levels would cool this year after\u00a0record levels of buying in 2016, and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re now seeing:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9843\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9843\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9843\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-reg-0417-sm.jpg\" alt=\"New van registrations April 2017 (SMMT)\" width=\"600\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-reg-0417-sm.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-reg-0417-sm-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-reg-0417-sm-50x37.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9843\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New van registrations April 2017 (souce: SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, seems to agree with this view, emphasising that new registrations are still at historically high levels:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cApril is traditionally a small month for new LCV registrations following the plate-change in March and, coming on the back of double-digit growth that resulted in a record April in 2016, this month\u2019s decline comes as no surprise. Overall, the market remains robust, however, and so long as business confidence among operators can be maintained, we expect to see the market remain at what is a historically high level over the course of the year.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Falls in April were\u00a0concentrated in the\u00a0sub-2.0t van segment (-37.5%) and the high-volume large van segment (-23.1%).\u00a0There was little change at the top of the best seller lists, however, with Ford continuing to reign supreme in the UK van market:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9844\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9844\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9844\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-sellers-0417-sm.jpg\" alt=\"LCV top sellers April 2017 (SMMT)\" width=\"600\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-sellers-0417-sm.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-sellers-0417-sm-300x144.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/smmt-lcv-sellers-0417-sm-50x24.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9844\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">LCV top sellers April 2017 (source: SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As we head into summer, Brexit and the general election have the potential to disrupt markets. But in reality I think the picture is still fairly healthy.<\/p>\n<p>New registrations\u00a0have risen massively over the last three years, but trees don&#8217;t grow to the sky. A\u00a0period of consolidation and\u00a0a return to historic average levels seems likely to me. I&#8217;d expect\u00a0a further decline as the year continues, but I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any reason to panic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New van registrations fell by 18.8% in April 2017. We dig into the latest SMMT figures and explain why we think the market still looks healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[310,1885],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9842"}],"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=9842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9846,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9842\/revisions\/9846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}