The UK new light commercial vehicle (LCV) market fell 4.5% to 33,066 units in June, ending a 17-month growth run. That is according to the latest figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Despite the fall, the market has remained robust in the first half of the year – up by 4.5% with 177,620 new vans, pickups and 4x4s registered in 2024, the best performance since 2021.
The scale of June’s decline is, in part, artificially inflated compared with 2023 – which saw the best June performance for four years as the industry met pent-up demand following Covid.
Deliveries of battery electric vans (BEVs) fell for a third month this year, down -16.8% on June 2023 to 1,476 units. As a result, in the year to date, BEVs account for just 4.7% of all new light van registrations compared with 5.2% for the same period last year, and still some way short of the 10% required to meet the ZEV Mandate.
Meanwhile, the UK new car market has hit a million registrations in half a year for the first time in five years, after new car registrations rose in June by a modest 1.1% to reach 179,263 units. As a result, so far in 2024, 1,006,763 new cars have been registered, up 6% on the previous year but still down -20.7% on 2019.
June’s market growth was again driven primarily by the fleet sector, where uptake rose by 14.2%. Private retail demand fell for the ninth consecutive month, down -15.3%. Retail buyers accounted for fewer than four in 10 new cars registered (37.7%).
Electrified vehicle uptake continued to grow robustly in June, with plug-in hybrid (PHEV) volumes up 30% to reach a 9.3% market share, while hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) rose 27.2% to achieve 14.9% of the market. Both powertrains outpaced battery electric vehicle growth (BEV), which rose 7.4% but took its highest monthly share this year, accounting for 19% of all new vehicle registrations.
