January 2002 CV market up by 6.7 per cent
Total CV Registrations in January
‘January was an excellent start to the year for the UK new CV market,’ said
SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan. ‘A very strong monthly total, only
bettered recently by January 1998, is a sign of continuing confidence in a market
where the pace of growth continues to surprise most analysts.
‘The market made sustained progress over the second half of 2001 and the trend
appears to be robust enough to last into and perhaps beyond the first quarter
of the year. Since August 2001 the UK market for new CVs has seen six consecutive
months of growth.’
Despite the economic uncertainties of the immediate past, the market for new
CVs continues to look very positive. The rise in 2001 was supported by robust
growth in a variety of service sector and distribution markets and these are
still expected to support economic growth in 2002. The year as a whole should
also prove to be very positive for the UK new CV market.
Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) Registrations
The LCV market volume achieved the highest total since 1998 when 19,413 new
LCVs were registered. The year on year growth at 6.8 per cent was spread across
most segments of the LCV sector, although the pattern of growth in the sector
has been variable in the past three to six months. In general, light vans (up
to 1.8t gvw) have seen weak monthly growth while the medium and heavy van sectors
have fared much better. 4×4 utilities, after struggling for a number of years
to mid-2001, recently started a strong revival. In January the light van segment
built on the growth in December with a 4.2 per cent increase and the medium
and heavy sector continued to develop strongly. The 4×4 utilities segment again
posted a very strong year on year monthly change of 33.5 per cent.
While there have been a number of structural changes affecting the mix of new
vans purchased, the drive to purpose-built as opposed to car derived vans and
the general popularity of heavier vans, has made the market as a whole grow
strongly. In January LCVs accounted for around 82 per cent of all new CV registrations.
New Registrations of Trucks
Growth in truck demand in January was 6.6 per cent, close to the average for
all CVs. In this very varied sector the overall market for rigid vehicles recorded
growth of 4.9 per cent while that for artics was up by 10.4 per cent. Two axle
artics, with growth of 19.5 per cent led the growth momentum, but overall volume
is about half of that of three axle artics. Growth of three axle artics was
up by 6.8 per cent.
The rigid market is varied and market performance is often diverse. January
showed that the average growth of 4.9 per cent masked a growth rate of 56.5
per cent for two axle light trucks (3.5 to 7.4t gvw) and a fall of 34.1 per
cent for two axle rigids (12 to 15t gvw). The two main weight ranges in the
two axle rigid segment, 7.4 to 7.5t gvw and over 15t gvw, recorded changes in
registration volume for the month respectively down by 2.5 per cent and up by
15.5 per cent. Within the multi axle rigid segment growth of 10.8 per cent in
four axle vehicles could not overturn a fall of 12.9 per cent in three axle
vehicles, registrations for multi axle rigids as a whole fell by 3.5 per cent.
New Bus & Coach Registrations
Bus and coach registrations were up by 8.0 per cent in January wholly due to
a surge of 188.6 per cent in registrations of 101 new coaches. Despite this
welcome growth the market for fare stage PSV remains becalmed at a relatively
low volumes and growth in coach registrations over the past six months has been
inconsistent.
