The passenger car market showed the first sign of recovery last month, but a positive trend among vans is still pending. Used, however, is already better.
Last month, 5,129 new light commercial vehicles were registered, which is 10.5 percent less than July last year. Cumulatively, the van market is no less than 28.8 percent below the first seven months of 2019 on 1 August. The Bovag trade association attributes this negative trend to the fact that the corporate market is ‘tightening up’ due to the corona crisis. In addition, the van market, like that for passenger cars, suffers from delivery problems due to factory closures. In the first entire month of the Corona (April), the episodes shot 37 percent below those of a year earlier. May was 51 percent in the negative, June 46 percent.
Seen in that context, the 10.5 percent is not even that bad, and perhaps the start of a line upwards. Despite a volume loss of 30 percent (until July), Volkswagen remains market leader.
Just as with passenger cars, the used vehicle market is also benefiting from the difficult trade in new vehicles. Up to 1 August this year, 66,997 used vans were sold, 1.9 percent more than the first seven months of 2019. March and April fell below zero, but the line went up again in May. Last month, the number of registrations for used vans was even more than 14 percent above July last year.