Despite the pick up in sales of passenger vehicles, delivery vans noted no improvement whatsoever, on the contrary they are down by 13 percent on the first four months of last year.
The only piece of good news for the sector that April was the best month so far this year. It is worst of all for domestic producers which have noted a drop in sales exceeding 71 percent.
The biggest loser is Daewoo Motor Polska. In the first four months of last year it sold more than 1,200 Lublin vans, this year it managed to sell only 86.
Of course production at the plant was halted for a long time. Importers now have a 87 percent stranglehold on the market. In April a sales increase of 25 percent was noted over April 2001. One reason for this is that comfort is becoming an issue for van buyers as it became an issue for car buyers several years ago. Polish producers cannot compete with foreign producers where buyers do not place load space as the only consideration. The best selling vans in April were Citroen C15, Renault Traffic and KIA K300. The worst was Skoda Pick Up — not one unit was sold.