Professional Pickup & Professional Van

Pickup registrations fell for the 10th consecutive month in July, as tax changes continued to weigh heavily on demand. The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show pickup registrations fell by 53.2% year on year to just 888 units. That means pickups accounted for only 3.1% of the wider light commercial vehicle market in July, despite overall LCV registrations rising by 22.0% during the month. The contrast is stark.

Toyota has introduced a two-seat commercial conversion of the new Hilux, giving business users a version of the pickup designed to qualify for more favourable tax treatment. The factory conversion removes the three-seat rear bench from the Double Cab cabin and replaces it with a large, flat and secure load area. The new load space measures 1,290mm wide and 640mm deep, and is accessed through the Hilux’s rear doors.

KGM has secured a $75 million (£55.8m) investment from Chery Automobile as the Korean manufacturer looks to accelerate new vehicle development and strengthen its position in global markets. The investment builds on a platform licensing agreement signed by KGM and Chery in 2024, followed by an agreement in April 2025 to jointly develop a new range of mid-to-large SUVs. It marks a significant deepening of the relationship.

Keeping a vehicle battery healthy is one of those small maintenance jobs that can prevent a much bigger problem later. For pickup operators, a flat battery is more than an inconvenience; it can mean missed jobs, delayed starts, recovery costs and unnecessary downtime. That makes a smart charger a useful bit of kit, particularly for vehicles that spend long periods parked up, are used seasonally, or have extra electrical demands from conversions, accessories or onboard equipment.

Ford’s Special Vehicle Team, better known as SVT, built a supercharged V8 Ranger in 2002 called the Lightning Bolt, but it never made it to production. Now one of the more interesting pickups in its Detroit-based heritage fleet, the Ford SVT Ranger Lightning Bolt started with an idea from powertrain engineer Dave Dempster.

The Festival of the Unexceptional might be best known for celebrating forgotten family cars, but the vans and pickups scattered around this year’s show at Grimsthorpe Castle were arguably even more evocative. Thirteen light commercial vehicles made it to this year’s event, ranging from familiar Ford and Volkswagen workhorses to obscure pickups and vans that would have been rare even when new.

Ford says the Ranger PHEV Pro Power Onboard system can be cleaner and cheaper to run than a conventional petrol generator, after testing the pickup against a typical portable site generator. The comparison was carried out at Ford’s Dunton engineering centre, using a Ranger PHEV plug-in hybrid with 6.9kW Pro Power Onboard and a hired 4kW portable petrol generator.

Pickup registrations have fallen for the ninth consecutive month, with demand more than halving in June as the market continues to feel the effects of this year’s tax changes. New figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show just 1,167 pickups were registered during June, a 57.6% decline compared with the same month last year.

The Ineos Grenadier and Quartermaster have been cleared for UK emergency service use after passing the Metropolitan Police vehicle testing programme. The approval covers both N1 commercial and M1 passenger versions of the Grenadier range, including the Quartermaster pickup. The Met Police test process is widely regarded as a benchmark for UK blue-light fleets, with vehicles assessed for capability, durability and repeated emergency-service use.

JAC has revealed details of the Hunter PHEV pickup for Australia, giving another sign of how quickly Chinese manufacturers are moving into electrified pickup territory. The Australian-market Hunter is a plug-in hybrid version of the T9 pickup, a model already shown in Europe in all-electric form.