According to Motorparc data from the SMMT, a total of 4,007,331 vans are now in use on UK roads – representing a 4.3% increase on last year.
SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes notes that a record number of new vehicle models is being launched at this year’s CV Show, which includes several global debuts.
For him, the rapid rise in van sales is due to the massive increase in home deliveries, both in terms of retail and online shoppoing.
“Commercial vehicles have never been more important to the British economy, transporting vital goods and services using the latest low emission technology,” states Hawes.
“The CV Show will demonstrate the huge progress that the whole industry continues to make, with a wealth of new products on display from manufacturers, suppliers, aftermarket companies and service providers.”
The new figures and the number of new products on display at the CV Show, he says, underline the importance of the commercial vehicle sector, which “contributes £11 billion annually to the UK economy”.
And he notes that increasing uptake of new vans is good news for the environment, too, with all vans registered from September this year having to meet Euro 6 emissions regulations.
Putting the numbers into context, SMMT says that if all the vans in the UK were parked end-to-end, they would stretch 28 times the length of the A1. And their combined payload volume adds up to 26.2 million cubic metres – the equivalent of 10,483 Olympic swimming pools.