Volkswagen Cleans up and commercial Vehicle awards ceremony.

• Transporter named ‘Best Crew Van’
• Amarok wins ‘Best Utility Pick-Up’ and ‘Best Double Cab’ awards
• Caddy awarded ‘Best Local Delivery Van’
• Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles presented with ‘Best Service Package for Van Owners’ and ‘BestFinance Package for Van Owners’ awards

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is celebrating a stunning trophy haul at the annual Business Van Awards. The brand swept the board on its way to collecting six out of 12 category awards.

Volkswagen scooped the manufacturer awards for Best Service Package and Best Finance Package. In addition, the brand also claimed Best Crew Van for Transporter, Best Local Delivery Van for Caddy, plus Best Utility Pick-Up and Best Double Cab for the Amarok.

Announcing the results before an industry audience, Business Vans’ editorial director, Ralph Morton, commented:

Best Crew Van – Transporter

‘It’s not just the Transporter panel van version that shines out for SME van operators, when it comes to carrying people to various jobs, the Kombi variant is a winner too.

‘But the real appeal of a Kombi is that it can be a tax-efficient dual use vehicle. For someone in the trades the Transporter Kombi is a brilliant, smart and professional-looking working van during the day, which can then double for family use at the weekends. It means you won’t need an additional car – the Kombi does it all.’

Best Local Delivery Van – Caddy

‘The VW Caddy is compact – just what you need for local delivery work – but this Volkswagen van also has a choice of payloads and 3.2m³ of load capacity and can take loads up to 1.78m. So it’s big on performance.

‘Add in the fact the Caddy is smart, has legendary VW build quality and reliability and carries the professional image that goes with the Volkswagen nameplate, and you have an excellent winner of our local delivery van category.’

Best Utility Pick-Up and Best Double Cab – Amarok

‘We do like a pick-up here at Business Vans and despite challenges from rivals, the Volkswagen Amarok remains top of the pile, whether it’s a do-it-all utility version you want or a more upmarket double cab.

‘Why does it remain our favourite? Outside it looks tough and on the road you feel like you’re ready for anything, the bed area is practical and spacious, yet inside it is comfortable with a car-like feel and comfy ride. Add in Volkswagen reliability and low running costs, and you can see why the Amarok remains king of the pick-ups.’

Best Service Package for Van Owners – Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles

‘The judges were impressed by Volkswagen’s service offering and the back-up provided by the brand’s dedicated Van Centre network, which features extended hours, fast emergency repairs and courtesy vehicles that are vital for busy small businesses.’

Best Finance Package – Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles

‘It’s not only the award-winning vans and pick-ups that are so right for small businesses, Volkswagen also supports its commercial vehicles with award winning finance. For those in the trades and other small businesses, Volkswagen offers the complete package. Why go anywhere else?’

Commenting on the awards success, Carl zu Dohna, Director of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, added: ‘To get such recognition demonstrates the strength of the brand and the quality of our products. This is another excellent result for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and proves that our vans make sense for small or large van buyers. 

‘Winning the best finance package and best service awards is particularly pleasing as it shows that our dedicated Van Centres are doing a great job of getting people on the road and keeping them moving!’

FIAT Commercial enjoys another record year of sales in the United kingdom.

• Almost 15,000 FIAT Professional vehicles registered in the UK in 2014, a record total for the brand
• New FIAT Ducato was key to this success, doubling sales in this key segment compared to 2013 despite only hitting showrooms in May
• Prospects look positive for 2015 with a full year of new FIAT Ducato sales and the launch of new FIAT Doblò Cargo scheduled for March

FIAT Professional has posted record sales for 2014 with 14,927 units registered, an increase of eight percent compared to 2013 which was itself another outstanding year for the brand! The results are a culmination of five years of sustained growth, which has seen FIAT Professional grow by 83 percent since 2010 in terms of sales.

Key to the brand’s 2014 success is the new FIAT Ducato, which has managed to almost double volumes compared to 2013 and increase its market share in the UK’s largest LCV segment by an impressive 2.7 percent, despite only being launched in the UK in May.  

FIAT Professional has also increased the retail proportion of its sales by 45 percent, appealing to more user-choosers and owner-operators than ever before, thanks to FIAT Professional’s combination of reliability, versatility, low running costs, advanced technologies and outstanding customer care.

Sebastiano Fedrigo, Director, FIAT Professional UK, commented, “We’re very proud of increasing our volumes to record levels in 2014 and in particular our engagement with retail customers, more and more of whom are relying on their FIAT Professional vehicles to get the job done. 

The new Ducato coming on stream mid-year gave us a significant boost and we have similar expectations of the new FIAT Doblò Cargo when it goes on sale in March. Combine those two vehicles with the rest of the outstanding FIAT Professional range and we are very confident in having another successful year in 2015.”

UK SALES - MERCEDES VANS - The Premium car company has record sales of vans in the UK last year.

Mercedes-Benz Vans registered over 35,000 vehicles in 2014 – the brands’ best-ever performance in the UK.

The fantastic achievement also marked an eighth consecutive record-breaking quarter, with an increase in registrations of 16.1% over 2013, which was also a record-breaking year.

Of the 35,036 Mercedes-Benz Vans registrations recorded in 2014, the brand increased sales over the previous year in every month, with the exception of September.

In terms of individual model performance across the year, Sprinter van registrations increased by 12%, with Citan up by an impressive 39%, and Sprinter Chassis Cab increased by a massive 50%. Vito, in its run out year, remained at the same level as 2013.

Service & Parts has experienced 8.9% growth in Van Customer Pay parts sales, as well as a 7% growth in Van customer pay labour sales through the Mercedes-Benz Commercial Dealer network.

These gains are directly related to an increase of nearly 4,000 Vans utilising Mercedes-Benz workshops for retail and R&M work, with service contract packages showing a penetration level of 27.5% across New and Used products.

The Service24h roadside assistance programme continues to deliver a class-leading roadside assistance average time of 58 minutes and roadside repair rate in excess of 83%.    

2014 was also another record-breaking year for Mercedes-Benz Financial Services. In the year, MBFS funded more Vans than ever before, lending over £250 billion worth of finance, which represented a significant 6.8% increase on the previous year. Once again, nearly one third of all Mercedes-Benz Vans registered in the UK were funded by MBFS.

Steve Bridge, Managing Director, Mercedes-Benz Vans, said: “When we broke the 30,000 registrations barrier in 2013, we broke all records in the UK history of our brand; to now announce registrations in 2014 of over 35,000 is a remarkable feat.

“We have the products, services and people to provide van owners and operators of the UK with an outstanding offering and our success in 2014 is proof of that.

“This year will be our year of sustainability, focused on maintaining our impressive registration benchmark; we look forward to a successful 2015.”

CHINA - Volvo buys 45% of Dongfeng Commecial Vehicles, on its way to become the biggest truck maker.

AB Volvo has completed the acquisition of 45% of the Chinese automotive manufacturer, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles Co., Ltd. The purchase consideration amounted to RMB 5.5 billion.

As announced earlier, AB Volvo signed an agreement in January 2013 with the Chinese automotive manufacturer, Dongfeng Motor Group Company Limited (DFG), to acquire 45% of a subsidiary of DFG, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles Co., Ltd (DFCV). DFCV includes most of Dongfeng’s operations in heavy-duty and medium-duty commercial vehicles.

To implement the transaction, a number of conditions had to be fulfilled, including approval from the Chinese competition authority and other relevant authorities. All approvals have been received.

This transaction will significantly strengthen the Volvo Group’s position in medium-duty trucks while the Group will become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of both medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks.

“This strategic alliance is a real milestone and entails a fundamental change in the Volvo Group’s opportunities in the Chinese truck market, which is the largest in the world,” says Volvo’s President and CEO, Olof Persson. “At the same time, it will provide us with the opportunity to become involved in growing DFCV’s international business in a manner that will benefit us and our Chinese partner.”

In 2013, DFCV’s pro-forma sales amounted to RMB 35 billion (SEK 37 billion) and the pro-forma operating income to RMB 950 million (SEK 1 billion). The total Chinese market for heavy-duty trucks amounted to about 774,000 vehicles in 2013, while the corresponding figure for the medium-duty truck market was 286,000 vehicles. DFCV had a leading position in both the heavy-duty and medium-duty segments, with sales of 120,600 heavy-duty trucks and 51,000 medium-duty trucks, corresponding to market shares of 15.6 and 17.8%, respectively.

During the first three quarters of 2014, DFCV’s sales amounted to RMB 26 billion (SEK 28 billion) and the operating profit to RMB 1.1 billion (SEK 1.2 billion). During the same period, DFCV sold 85,000 heavy-duty and 31,000 medium-duty trucks. On September 30, 2014, DFCV had a net financial asset of RMB 3 billion (SEK 3.6 billion). (2014 un-audited)

AB Volvo’s ownership in DFCV is expected to be recognized as an associated company and will be consolidated as of January 2015 according to the equity method and reported in the trucks segment. 

The payment of the purchase consideration will impact the Group’s cash flow and net financial debt in the first quarter of 2015 by approximately SEK 7 billion. However, as the purchase consideration has been hedged, the nett amount paid for the ownership in DFCV is approximately SEK 5.6 billion.