Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is celebrating a record-breaking start to 2014 with best-ever first quarter light commercial vehicle (LCV) registrations of 10,757 - up 19% on 2013.

Total year-to-date registrations were 11,783, which includes 1,026 camper vans and passenger carriers.

For the first time ever, the brand sold more than 7,000 new vehicles in a month as UK March sales hit a record 7,564, up 22.5% (2013: 6,177).

The performance maintains the brand's status as the number two LCV manufacturer in the UK.

All models enjoyed strong first-quarter sales, resulting in a record LCV market share of 13.5%, up 0.8 percentage points when compared with the same period last year. Transporter models continued to be the most popular Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle, accounting for 5,526 registrations (15.1% up on 2013).

The Caddy grew less strongly from 3,316 in 2013 to 3,431 in 2014 - a growth of 3.5%, incontrast to the Crafter whose year-to-date registrations rose by 47.4% (1,887 registrations), helping Volkswagen's biggest van improve its performance.

Demand for Volkswagen's Amarok pick-up was up 41.6% (939 registrations) when compared with the same period of 2013.

Alex Smith, director of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, said: "It's been a truly impressive start to the year and a reflection of the hard work by everyone involved in the brand.

"These figures prove that Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is outperforming the market. Demand remains at an all-time high because customers understand the benefit of strong residual values, low whole-life costs and a specialist network that provides knowledge, sales expertise and technicians that are trained specifically for vans."