UK Light Commercial Vehicles 6 months 2013: Great Wall not taking off (yet?)

The Great Wall Steed is not making big waves yet in the UK market.

* See the Top 20 All-brands ranking by clicking on the title! *

Quick update on the UK Light Commercial Vehicle market, in as great a shape as the Passenger Cars one: up 11% year-on-year over the first 6 months of 2013 to 133,177 registrations. Only a brands ranking is available for now. Ford unsurprisingly continues to lead the market by very far with 34,462 sales and just under 26% share, with the Transit almost certainly on top of the models charts. Volkswagen impresses at +23% and stays #2 at 18,624 units and 14%, followed by Vauxhall like in 2012 with 15,139 sales, up 14%. Citroen gains 2 spots compared to one year ago at #4 with sales up 21% to  11,294, ahead of Mercedes (+10%), Peugeot (-4%) and Fiat, up a fantastic 67% year-on-year.

Fiat LCV sales are up 67% year-on-year in the UK.

But one of the main reasons for this update is to follow to progression of Chinese manufacturer Great Wall, which launched in the country in early 2012 with the Steed pick-up. Well the figures are still very small: 362 sales halfway through 2013, that’s twice as much as over the same period last year but only 0.27% market share and #15 brand as in the Full Year 2012. June sales are slightly better at 91 units and 0.39% (+122%) but there is a long way to even the #14 brand, Iveco, which has sold nearly 5 times as many vehicles… As with the Chinese MG models, it looks like Great Wall is having a very difficult time cracking the mature market that is the UK…

Previous UK post: UK June 2013: 2 BMWs in Top 8, private sales up 21%!

Previous UK LCV post: UK Light Commercial Vehicles Full Year 2012: Great Wall #15

Full 6 months 2013 Top 20 Brands Ranking Table below.