Market Report: Van Finance
The van market has been on a high with record sales for the past four years. Last year saw 375,687 vehicles registered as fleets and SMEs kicked Brexit fears into touch and took advantage of the ultra- competitive deals on offer. And behind these sales, finance has played a pivotal role. True, after these record performances the market has taken a hit in 2017 but it is still in good fettle.
Karl Werner, motor division CEO at MotoNovo, argued that the market can be split between finance for large fleets and SMEs.
"Fleet is heavily oriented towards the new and nearly-new category and thanks to the improved quality of the product often uses residual value products, most notably leasing. In large part this is linked to taxation issues and cash flow rather than the residual value issues seen in cars. Naturally, residual values lean towards the conservative.
"MotoNovo is very active in the used van market where HP remains the dominant product. This is a large and diverse market and while traditional panel vans dominate, the range, which includes Luton vans, pick-up trucks and even specialist vehicles means that our specialist underwriting skills are often called upon to review what can be unusual case. Inevitably vans will often be subject to high mileage and heavy wear and tear, it means that HP is the dominant finance product in the used sector."
The van market is not particularly fast moving, but Werner identifies some key trends worth watching...
