In this video, I ask the question 'why are vans so expensive?' and why they have become much more expensive over the past couple of years, due to the covid pandemic. Prices have shot up recently, leaving many individuals and businesses unable to buy vans, so why is this?

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0:00 - Intro
0:20 - A Global Pandemic
0:50 - In Short Supply
1:38 - A Desirable Vehicle
2:12 - Holiday At Home
2:39 - #vanlife
3:15 - Escaping The City
3:33 - The World Has Gone Online
4:13 - The Delivery Boom
4:49 - In The Future

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The main factor is, of course, the global pandemic. It created a huge amount of change in a very small space of time and this has definitely hit the van and car markets.

But but other industries suffered too; from DIY supplies to fuel, from tech to supermarket shelves, there’s definitely been a huge strain put on suppliers.

With workers downing tools for quarantines, it was inevitable that the effects of this would be felt globally. One of the most notable areas is computer chips. There’s a well documented shortage of these chips, in part due to disruption to the workforce during the pandemic and this, being months behind their schedules, has led to slowed manufacturing until production catches up.

How does this affect vans? Less vans are able to be made, making them more difficult to acquires for business fleets or individually and that puts pressure on van market - particularly the second hand one - leading to higher prices which the consumer pays for.

Vans have become seriously desirable vehicles to own - perhaps more so now than ever. They are very versatile, usually reliable vehicles & capable of coping with high mileage.

In lockdown, people suddenly found time on their hands to buy and convert vans, myself included. I had started my conversion before the pandemic struck, however lockdown provided a great opportunity to work on the van.

As life reopened gradually, there was also the question of holidays, and travel was one of the last areas to get back to normal, so having a van which can provide a self-contained, isolated, safer staycation, whilst exploring your own country by road, was the most that many people could get for a holiday. Also, staying on the road or in campsites is still cheaper than a hotel - an important consideration for many given the financial uncertainty which has followed covid.

A little something called vanlife has reared its head in recent years and it's definitely a contributing factor into the increased demand for vans. Even pre-pandemic, rising house prices have meant younger generations can't get on the property ladder, or are priced out of their local area, and so look to vans as an alternate way of putting a roof over their heads. Vans are relatively cheap compared to a house and the van lifestyle, perpetuated on social media, looks appealing.

Covid has also made people leave cities for the country, and vans provide a catalyst for this; enabling people to explore their local area more and enabling people to travel and live a freer life, less dictated by their jobs.

Many industries which were still allowed to work through pandemic had to provide their services by home delivery. Fast food chains, restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops and many others adapted to keep their businesses alive, only made possible with vans.

Online food shopping, spontaneous pandemic purchases and equipment for new hobbies all had to be delivered to people’s homes, and the increased demand for delivery drivers enabled van sellers to ask a higher price.

For businesses being conservative financially, and with long waits for new vans off the production line, they didn’t renew their fleets with new van models, and squeezing the used van market, meaning less are available for others, so people will be happy to pay more to get what they want.

As with most things in life, what goes up must come down, and this will most likely be the case for the van market, but for now prices seem set to continue climbing, much to the frustration of prospective owners, but also current van owners - after all, if prices go up, then that can push up the price of parts too, leaving all of our pockets a little lighter.

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