October was a bumper month for the truck market – up 32 per cent on last year. And the van market was up 26.3 per cent, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
It means that for the first ten months of 2013, truck registrations are 3.2 per cent ahead of last year. The figures suggest that companies are looking to complete fleet replacements ahead of the move to Euro 6 in the new year.
Scania and Volvo have been the big winners in the market for trucks over six tonnes, with increases of more than 20 per cent on last year. Mercedes also outperformed the market to consolidate its second place.
Market leader DAF saw its share of the market decline by a couple of percentage points – but it still has a 28 per cent share.
In the market for vans under 3.5 tonnes, Ford maintained its leadership with more than a quarter of the market – though its share was down marginally for the year to date.
There were strong performances from Volkswagen, Mercedes, Citroën and Fiat. Overall registrations were up 11 per cent to 227,477 for the year to date.
“Both the van and truck markets showed great strength in October boosting the sector by 27.3 per cent and taking the 2013 growth rate to almost 10 per cent,” said Nigel Base, SMMT commercial vehicle manager. “We anticipated this late strength in the truck market and SMMT has raised its forecast for van registrations to 264,100 a 10.2 per cent rise on last year.”
