It’s fair to say that the 2018 What Van? Awards proved to be a fruitful event for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
The brand was Highly Commended in the safety category, as it was in light vans for the Caddy and pick-ups for the Amarok, retained the best website award it captured in 2017,
and its new Crafter not only took the Large Van of the Year Award but also made off with the overall Light Commercial Vehicle of the Year prize.
VW UK boss Carl Zu Dohna says: “We were really proud to win the award for the Crafter. We came down [to the Awards luncheon] with the whole team and it was good to see customers there.
Describing What Van? as “top of the pecking order” Zu Dohna says the external validation of winning the awards means he can say to customers: “Don’t believe me, believe What Van?”
He professes to have been almost as pleased to see the brand recognised for its work on safety as he was to see the Crafter land the top product prize.
Last year Volkswagen became the first manufacturer to fit its vans with autonomous emergency braking (AEB) as standard, a move that led road safety research company Thatcham Research to describe the brand as a “trailblazer” for fitting the “proven lifesaving technology”.
Zu Dohna asserts that the Crafter now has all the credentials to match the success of its stablemates the Caddy light van and Transporter medium van, which have traditionally been bigger sellers. With an extended line-up including front-, rear- and all-wheel-drive derivatives and a wide range of conversions enabled by single- and double- cab chassis cabs, he says: “We can tackle the whole market now.”
Zu Dohna was also delighted that the brand held onto the What Van? website award, explaining: “Our customers are very digital – all their research is done online.”
Carl Zu Dohna
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles was the UK’s second biggest-selling light commercial vehicle brand in 2017 after Ford with a 12% market share from shifting 41,474 units, which was down 8.5% on the previous year.
Zu Dohna puts the decline down to the disruption caused by the replacement of the Crafter and Amarok pick-up models as well as the expiry of a number of major fleet contracts, with the brand having pulled the Caddy out of short-cycle deals, he says.
With lower-powered 161hp manual Amaroks now available and the full Crafter range coming onboard in 2018 Zu Dohna expects the momentum to pick up again.
The manufacturer is beefing up its aftersales customer support through its dealer network with more than 60% of its 97 sites offering a degree of flexible, on-demand servicing.
It claims 15% of outlets open 13 hours a day for three days a week with 5% opening 16 hours a day for three days a week.
Volkswagen is introducing Crafter-converted mobile service clinics that can carry out work at a customer’s home or workplace and plans to have 24 in operation by the end of this year.
“We have seen a shift in mindset in dealers in that the customer doesn’t just want nine-to-five [workshop availability],” says Zu Dohna.
“Some customers said that pre-booking is what they need – and this is a minimum.”
He claims instigating a pre-booking service enables dealers to better manage their businesses without incurring too much additional cost.
Zu Dohna says that the mobile service clinics enable operators to minimise vehicle downtime and points out that they are distinct from the roadside assistance service that Volkswagen runs in conjunction with the AA.
He adds that the brand has an Uptime Focus Team based in Leeds that works on ensuring the network does all it can to get customers back on the road as quickly as possible if their vans require repairs or servicing.
The VW team at the Awards
The standard fitment of AEB introduced on the Caddy, Transporter and Crafter last year should help to significantly improve uptime by reducing accident rates by up to 45%, with the main benefit being in urban areas, according to Zu Dohna.
Zu Dohna acknowledges VW’s recognised converter programme has assumed critical importance in establishing the new Crafter as a central player in the large van segment. It is an area where there is room for growth and one in which the brand has invested heavily since taking production of the Crafter in-house in 2016 at its purpose-built plant at Wrzesnia, Poland. The factory produces off-the-shelf Engineered to Go bodystyles such as tippers, dropsides and Lutons while more bespoke requirements are produced by conversion partners under the Engineered for You programme.
“The Crafter chassis cab is what we have to get right,” Zu Dohna says.
“If you wanted a fridge van you’d go to a converter specialist not a VW dealership, so our approved partners must be able to sell the benefits of the Volkswagen van.”
Zu Dohna says the customer looking for a particular conversion will not put the word ‘Volkswagen’ into a search engine but will instead key in, for example, ‘cherry picker’. It is down to the bodybuilder, therefore, to persuade the customer to choose the Crafter chassis cab.
The manufacturer also aims to establish a foothold in electric vehicle technology and has commenced trials of its plug-in e-Crafter, with Gatwick Airport being a notable recipient of the model in the UK. The electric light commercial has a range of around 100 miles and is expected to come to market before the end of the year. Electric versions of the Caddy and Transporter are set to follow in 2020 with gas-powered derivatives of the former also under consideration for the UK.
Zu Dohna says the EVs will be sold as one vehicle, including the battery, but is conscious that the Van Centre network will have to be educated in how to handle electric vans – particularly in its prime role of catering for the requirements of small businesses with fleets of fewer than 100 vehicles.
Volkswagen has already introduced petrol derivatives of its Caddy and Transporter models and is anticipating interest from urban operators concerned about the possibility of more restrictions being placed upon diesel vehicles.
Zu Dohna says the current take-up of petrol Caddys is a modest 5%, which is still, however, higher than that of Transporters.
Nevertheless, to test the water, the manufacturer has introduced 10 petrol-powered Transporters to trial as Zip Vans in London.
In a move to keep small and medium-sized enterprises onboard, Volkswagen is to unveil a new Business trim for its Caddy, Transporter and Crafter vans at the Commercial Vehicle Show in April.
The light commercial vehicle market is rapidly evolving and to cater for this Zu Dohna says Volkswagen aims to offer a broad mobility solution that must be flexible enough to meet peaks in demand and a wide range of customer needs.
As Volkswagen’s UK boss puts it: “We must [now] provide more than a box on wheels.”
