Who is the Commercial Vehicle Market Leader?

Ford is the CV market leader in the UK, and recent sales figures show the manufacturer is actually improving its market share. November sales figures indicate Ford’s advantage over its closest rival has grown to a full 40 percent. Ford’s figures also show faster growth than the overall market sales figures.

Mark Ovenden, the Managing Director for Ford of Britain, noted that the popular Transit nameplate sales are actually greater than any Ford car in the UK. Ovenden credits Ford’s emphasis on both innovative technology and new models for the excellent CV sales performance.

Ovenden acknowledges Ford’s latest model, the Fiesta, for adding to the sales performance. As this CV offers several advantages that seem to have caught the eye of many customers; it offers one of the lowest LCV prices, it is car-like in size and driveability, and it is very fuel-efficient.

Another significant Ford entry has been the Ford Transit Courier. This van offers a step-up in size from the Fiesta, but it shares many of the Fiesta’s characteristics such as fuel economy, carlike handling, and low price. Sales figures seem to indicate that fleet managers are adding the Transit Courier and the Fiesta to their mixed fleet. Sales also indicate that individual owners find these budget-smart LCVs are big enough to handle many tasks with less waste of space and fuel – both certainly offer better manoeuvrability on busy urban streets.

The other three Transits demonstrate Ford’s knack of offering the right-sized van for the job. The full-sized Transit Van and the Custom offer the largest choices, while the Transit Connect offers a middle-sized choice that is so well-liked by critics that it was named the 2014 International Van of the Year.

UK sales of all CVs in November 2014 show an increase of 4.2 percent over November 2013, while Ford’s sales figures in particular, show a near 25 percent increase over the same period in the previous year.

Of the 29,500 CVs sold in the UK, some 7,287 were Ford vans – that’s a quarter or 25% of all commercial vehicles sold in the country.

And sales continue to steadily climb, reaching 80,192 with the latest sales figures – a 23.6 percent jump in sales over last year. By comparison, total CV sales in the UK have risen by only 13.1 percent this year.

Clearly, Ford are set on helping themselves to an ever increasing slice of the sales pie.