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The light commercial vehicle market bucked the trend in July by recording a small increase in registrations.

With new car sales volumes falling, registrations of light commercials were up 1.1% in July to 24,766 units. This leaves the market down by 3.1% year to date. Ford continues to dominate the market with a 32.17% market share ahead of Volkswagen with a share of 11.32%.

In July, the mid-size vans (2.0-2.5 tonnes) performed extremely well with a growth of 41.4%, which equals to 4,837 new vans on the road against last July’s 3,421 units. These vehicles tend to be used in the service sector which is very much driven by domestic consumer demand.

Sales of pickups, which have repeatedly increased up to this month, slipped back by -9.5%, but year to date are still 14.8% higher than last year.

Over the last few months there has been concern surrounding the biggest segment of the market – vans between 2.5-3.5 tonnes. This sector saw a decline of 2.5% in July, with industry analysts believing that many large fleet buyers might be holding back to see how the economy reacts as Brexit negotiations develop.

Commenting on the figures, Sue Robinson, director of the National Franchised Dealers Association, said: “With speculation and uncertainty about the state of UK’s economy, it is encouraging to see light commercial vehicle registrations grow in July.

 “Overall, we expect the market to remain stable throughout the remainder of the year but continue to perform slightly below 2016 levels, which was a record breaking year for light commercial vehicles’ registrations.”

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