How did the UK’s LCV markets perform in 2024?
13 January 2025
The UK’s new light-commercial vehicle (LCV) market declined at the end of 2024. Meanwhile, in-person auction attendance continued to rise. Andy Picton, specialist residual value analyst at Glass’s, analyses the market trends with Autovista24 editor Tom Geggus.
The UK’s new-LCV market closed the year with an 8.3% drop in registrations in December. A total of 27,221 new models were registered in the month. This meant 2024 ended with 351,834 units entering service, a 3% increase on the 341,455 units registered during 2023.
Demand was down across all sectors in December. The only exception was vans weighing less than 2 tonnes gross-vehicle weight (GVW), with registrations in this category up by 13.6% year on year. Vans between 2 and 2.5 tonnes GVW recorded a 4.1% decline, equating to a difference of 201 units over the same period last year.
Meanwhile, 2.2% fewer new vans weighing between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes GVW hit the road in December. This sector recorded 17,653 registrations and continued to be the most popular despite the decline. It represented 64.8% of all LCVs registered during the month. The pickup sector fell by over a quarter, finishing 28.1% down on December 2023.
Double-cab pickup tax
Last year saw registrations grow in every van-weight class across the 12-month period, with uptake of the largest vans growing by 2.1%, representing 66.3% of the market. Demand for medium and small-sized vans also grew, up 12.3% and 44.5% to 65,148 units and 8,606 units respectively.
The only disappointment in the LCV market was the 8.3% drop in new pick-up registrations to 37,582 units. Last year the government decided to change the tax on double-cab pickups. As of April 2025, they will be classed as cars for benefit-in-kind and capital allowance purposes.
This decision could see the number of new pick-up registrations fall further this year. Farming, construction, utilities and sole traders are often dependent on these vehicles. Now they face additional costs, which may prevent them from investing in a new model. This could keep those more polluting vehicles on the road, while also reducing tax revenues.
Ford locks out the top
Ford models led the UK’s new-LCV market in 2024, claiming the top-three positions for the year. Another strong performance confirmed the Ford Transit Custom as the highest-registered LCV in the UK. It came third in the overall vehicle sales, behind the Ford Puma and the Kia Sportage.
December saw the Ford Transit Custom lead the way, with the Ford Transit in fourth (3,715 units) and the Ranger pickup in seventh (1,193 units). Stellantis Pro One saw the Vauxhall Vivaro finish second (1,790 units) and the Peugeot Partner in eighth (952 units).
The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (1,595 units) and the Isuzu D-Max (1,522 units) finished third and fifth respectively. The remaining spots were taken by the Renault Trafic in sixth (1,429 units), with the Volkswagen Crafter (923 units) and Transporter (852 units) in ninth and 10th respectively.
Increase in electric LCV registrations
Registrations of battery-electric vans weighing up to 3.5 tonnes GVW increased by 10.4% in December. A total of 3,271 units were delivered compared to 2,964 units 12 months ago. This represents a monthly market share of 12%.
All-electric van registrations totalled 20,509 units in 2024, up 1.3% on the 20,253 units delivered in 2023. The powertrain’s market share totalled 5.8% in 2024, down 0.1 percentage points (pp) from twelve months ago.
This performance reflects a push for battery-electric vehicles in the UK’s new-car market. Both performances come at the end of the first year of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate targets. These specified that 22% of cars, and 10% of vans, in a manufacturer’s fleet, must be ZEVs.
The last four months of 2024 saw electric LCV registrations exceed 2,000 units every month for the first time ever. This exceeded the same period in 2023 by 1,068 units, up by 12%. However, this does not detract from the fact that electric-van registrations were lower in 2024 than in 2023 and finished woefully behind ZEV mandate targets.
Manufacturers continue to invest heavily in ZEVs. However, a lack of a van-specific infrastructure and effective government support continues to blight the transition. This reflects the huge challenge ahead in fast-tracking operators towards battery-electric LCVs.
Ford accounted for 43.6% of registrations of battery-electric vans weighing up to 3.5 tonnes GVW in December. Volkswagen made up 20.6% and Maxus took 9.3%. Toyota placed fourth with 7.7% and Mercedes-Benz fifth with 6.4%. Then came Peugeot with 170 units (5.2%), Nissan with 74 units (2.3%), and Citroen with 51 units (1.5%). Renault finished ninth with 48 units (1.45%) and Vauxhall 10th with 34 units (1%).
Ford E-Transit Custom claims LCV win
By range, the recently launched Ford E-Transit Custom was the top-registered all-electric van for the month. It claimed a 38% market share in December. Then came the Mercedes-Benz e-Vito with 128 units (3.9% share), the Toyota Proace City Electric with 121 units (3.7% share), and the Maxus eDeliver 9 with 90 units (2.7% share). The top 10 was rounded out by the Maxus eDeliver 3 with 88 units (2.7% share) and the Maxus eDeliver 7 with 75 units (2.3% share).
BYD (100%), Peugeot (15%), Maxus (14.8%) and Nissan (13.4%) were the only manufacturers to meet the minimum 10% ZEV mandate sales share target for 2024. Toyota just missed out with 9.6% and Volkswagen on 8.2%. Further adrift was Vauxhall on 6.7%, Mercedes-Benz on 5.4%, Renault Trucks on 5.3% and Renault on 5%.
Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Iveco, Maxus, Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi-Fuso, registered an additional 111 electric vans weighing between 3.5 and 4.25 tonnes GVW as part of the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme (VETS). They contributed towards a monthly market share of 12.4%. A total of 1,646 units were registered during 2024 compared to 1,203 in 2023 but resulted in an identical overall market share of 6.3%.
The plug-in hybrid (PHEV) van market saw Ford and Toyota register 476 units between them during December. Ford registered 300 Transit Custom PHEVs and two Transit Connect PHEVs, while Toyota registered 174 Corolla Commercials. Across the full year, Toyota registered 2,015 Corolla Commercials, Ford 1,725 Transit Custom PHEVs and two Transit Connect PHEVs, with LEVC delivering three VN5 vans.
Auction attendance on the up
Overall, the used-LCV auction market proved healthy in 2024, with stock levels and buyer demand all closely aligned. Attendances at physical auctions has been on the rise as lower prices have attracted more buyers. Additionally, vendors have been more in tune with market sentiment. This resulted in first-time conversion rates rising to 83.8% over the year.
With the shorter working month, the number of vehicles sold during December fell by over 31% on November but was up over 9.4% on 12 months ago. A better mix of stock and a higher level of interest saw the end-of-year average selling price at its highest since September, increasing 3.1% over November. However, this figure was down 16% on December 2023.
Used electric LCVs remain static
The average age of sold stock fell from 83.3 months in November to 80.3 months but was 2.2 months older than a year ago. Average mileage during December increased 0.3% to 80,058 miles but remained 3.2% lower than in the same period of 2023.
Of the vehicles sold at auction in December, 78.3% were Euro 6 with an average age of 59.6 months and an average mileage of 72,579 miles. This was close to the 72,676 average miles recorded in November.
Sales of used electric vans remained static at 0.9% of the overall market. The average age of these vehicles fell to 70.7 months from 75.8 months. The average mileage of 27,234 miles was down from 37,867 miles in November. Euro 5 stock made up the remaining 20.8% of sales, falling from 22.9% in the previous month.
Sales of medium-sized vans at auction ended the year strongly, accounting for 39.5% in the month. Small vans accounted for 28.9% and large vans 20.7%. Volumes of 4x4 pickups sold accounted for only 10.8% of all sales, but recorded the highest average sale price at £12,444 (€14,865), up 4% on November.
Large vans covered more distance than any other vehicle type at an average of 87,171 miles. This was an increase of nearly 3,000 miles on the previous month but a near 10,400-mile decrease annually.
First-time LCV conversion rates keep increasing
Overall first-time conversion rates increased for the eighth straight month to end the year at 83.8%. This was up by 1.1 percentage points (pp) on November. Broken down, conversion rates across the sectors were split relatively evenly.
Possibly as a result of the colder and wetter weather in the UK, the best conversion rate was achieved in the 4x4 pickup sector. It reached 84.5%, up from 83.4% in November. The small-van sector followed at 84.4% (up 1.4pp) and the medium-van sector at 83.9% (up 1pp). The large-van sector returned the lowest first-time conversion levels at 82.2%.
Used vehicles observed for sale in the retail market last month reduced by 4.5% to 44,100 units. Of these, 93.3% were diesel models, 2% were petrol, 0.5% were PHEVs and 3.8% were BEVs. Of all vehicles on sale, 37.7% were valued at £20,000 or more, while 35.8% were on sale for between £20,000 and £10,000.
Vehicles on sale between £10,000 and £5,000 saw their share drop to 21.5% of the overall market. Meanwhile, 5% were on sale for less than £5,000. White vehicles made up just under half of all vans on sale at 49.3%. Grey followed at 16.4% and silver at 10.4%. Average age remained steady at 58 months and the average mileage increased slightly to just over 58,000 miles.
