The Ford Transit Custom has ended the year as the best-selling vehicle of 2022.
Not content with taking the honour of the most purchased van, the Transit Custom tops the list ahead of all passenger car models too.
With a total of 42,762 sales throughout 2022 the Ford Transit Custom narrowly beat the Nissan Qashqai which was the best-selling car of 2022 with 42,704.
The Ford Transit Custom is the best-selling vehicle in the UK for 2022 but also the second year running having also beaten all passenger car models the previous year. Amazingly, Transit Custom vans account for a third of all van sales while its larger sibling the Ford Transit came in second with 33,203 registrations during the year.
The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter was the third most popular commercial vehicle in 2022 with 17,034 sales ahead of the Vauxhall Vivaro (16,830). The Ford Ranger pick-up came in fifth on the list, comfortably making it the most in-demand commercial 4x4, with 16,827 sales and a market share of more than 65%.
The remainder of the top ten is filled with familiar names including the Volkswagen Transporter, Ford Transit Connect, Peugeot Expert, Renault Trafic and Volkswagen Crafter.
Diesel engines were the dominant powertrain of choice for vans and other commercial vehicles in 2022 with 91.9% of all sales being diesel vans. Electric vans accounted for 5.9%, a slight increase on the previous year where 3.6% were battery electric vehicles. However, the overall market for light commercial vehicles declined from 355,380 registrations in 2021 to 282,139 in 2022 – a drop of 20.6%.
As a result the percentage change is far greater with 31.2% more BEV vehicles being registered in 2022 than in 2021 and 23.1% fewer diesel vehicles.
With such dramatic declines in sales it is not surprising that all segments of the LCV sector saw large drops in sales.
Sales of vans under 2-tonnes were down 56.1% with just 7,805 registrations while 2-tonne to 2.5-tonne registrations were down 31% with 32,501 units. The far larger 2.5-tonne to 3.5-tonne category which includes the majority of medium vans and all large vans was down a more moderate 14.4% with 208,728 registrations.
The pick-up truck market which has for many years seen more than 50,000 units sold in a single year was down 30.4% with 29,564 registrations.
