SMMT data for last month brought good news for the van market as registrations showed a monthly increase of 43%, bringing the year to date increase to 17.6%. It was a different story for the truck sector as demand for heavy trucks was down 12.1% in April, resulting in a year to date decrease of 15.5%.
Commenting on the figures, Sue Robinson, director of the NFDA, which represents commercial vehicle and franchised car retailers across the UK commented: ‘As we expected to see an increase in sales of trucks occurring ahead of the more expensive Euro 6 trucks coming into the market in January 2014, these figures are disappointing. The economic situation has caused many operators and buyers to resist the temptation of buying new trucks and instead focus on keeping their existing vehicles well maintained.
‘However, van sales are encouraging and we believe this is down to the wide availability of finance offered by light commercial vehicle manufacturers.’
