The data specialist Dataforce has once again put the van market under the microscope and checked the state of electrification, which is progressing only slowly. In relation to passenger car registrations, the volume of light commercial vehicles newly registered in Germany is lower. On the topic of electric vans there is currently a greater backlog than in the passenger car market, according to the verdict, even though progress is indeed being made, the analysts conclude.
New registrations in the German van market this year are almost exactly at the previous year's level. For the period from January through August, there is a decline of 0.7%. With just under 341,000 registrations of light commercial vehicles up to 7 tonnes as well as passenger-utility vehicles, the market is thus slightly down, but at the same time exceeds the comparison values of 2020 to 2023. For the by far most important channel Fleet there is a
decline of currently 4.6%, noting that the registration volume in the small fleets is fairly stable, while the larger fleets currently register fewer new vans. Unchanged the fleet market is dominated by the three market leaders. Mercedes, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Ford were able to further increase their share and account for no less than 71% of all van registrations in this customer group in the first eight months of 2025.
Ford continues to grow, also electrically
In particular, Ford shows a remarkable upward trend with a gain of 24.9%. A substantial share of this is due to the new Transit Custom, which moved from position six to second in the model ranking, with fewer than 50 units separating it from the top spot (held by the Mercedes Sprinter). With 12.4%, the electric share in the Transit Custom is above average. While this is positive for Ford, it also clearly shows that the
BEV share overall still has a lot of room to grow. An electric share of 10.3% overall may not seem particularly impressive, but is still clearly higher than last year (6.5%). The dominance of diesel engines remains a reality, even though their share fell by more than five percentage points.
Are fleet decision-makers ready for BEVs?
Whether fleet managers are still skeptical about electric models or have become more open to them, is answered by the current Dataforce study „E-Mobilität 2025“. It covers among other things the use of vans, purchasing behavior and the assessment of individual brands by fleet professionals. It also evaluates the deployment of electric vans in daily practice. Overall, currently in about 7% of fleets fully electric vans are represented. As a rule of thumb: the larger the fleet, the higher the penetration. But even in the large fleets these vehicles are so far only an addition, because few
companies have already switched their fleet entirely to electric.
But they do exist, as the shining example Deutsche Post DHL shows. And according to the study, experiences with them are predominantly positive. The study further suggests that the continued spread of electrification among the models will most likely not fail. Of course, requirements such as space availability/charging capacity and payload are among the second- and third-most important criteria. However, the price-performance ratio clearly sits at the top by a wide margin. Thus, profitability is currently the biggest obstacle to a rapid ramp-up of electrification; in addition, the significantly higher prices for electric models compared with similar internal combustion models deter many fleet customers. Here, manufacturers are, of course, obliged to offer better and above all more price-attractive models, the authors say. Only in this way can the EU's tightened fleet limits be met and thus possible penalties for the period 2025-2027 be avoided.
