In another extraordinary month of truck sales, the Australian market continues its boom times registering another strong monthly result in April, which was two per cent ahead of the result for April in the all-time record year of 2018, and 39 per cent up on the Covid affected April of last year.
A total of 3215 trucks were sold in Australia in April taking the year-to-date total for the first four months to 11540 units just 286 behind April 2018’s record turn.
For all of that April was just 354 behind the tally for March this year, underlining the strong market conditions across the market.
Isuzu had another strong month leading the overall market with 788 sales and 24.5 per cent market share, as did Hino in second with 520 sales for 16.5 per cent market share while third place Fuso also performed strongly with 318 sales and 9.9 per cent share.
Between them the three Japanese brands took just over half the market and have sold more trucks in the opening four months of this year than they did in 2018.
Kenworth took fourth place in the overall market with 200 sales, to finish ahead of Mercedes Benz with 152 units and a remarkable performance by Scania taking sixth with 131 sales, ahead of a languishing Volvo with just 111 units for the month.
In Heavy Duty, Kenworth again ruled the roost with its 200 sales delivering 21.5 per cent market share in the sector. That performance by Scania, possibly the best ever monthly tally for the ‘other’ Swede in its history in Australia, placed it 25 units ahead of Volvo and 33 up on Mercedes Benz in the Heavy sector.
Medium duty saw a neck and neck race again between Isuzu and Hino with the former taking the sector with 227 sales, just 26 units clear of Hino with 201 while Fuso completed a near shut out for the Japanese trio with 104 sales. Between them the three brands took 94.2 per cent of the medium market. The next best behind Fuso was UD with 11 units while both Volvo and Hyundai took five trucks each.
Light Duty was the real powerhouse of the market with total sales for the sector at 1113, almost 200 more than the sector total for April 2018 but it was 118 units behind the March 2021 totals. Isuzu led the sector with 473 sales, 205 clear of Hino in second and 301 units ahead of Fuso in third with 172 units. Iveco with 56 and Mercedes-Benz and Fiat with 51 units each were the next best in the light sector.
Mercedes led the van market with 239 units, fighting back against Ford’s dominance in March, with Henry finishing second on 167 units and VW taking third with 139 sales.
It is clear that commercial vehicle sales are booming and despite some fails by isolated brands the overall market is very strong and with executives telling us that the order banks are healthy for months ahead, we cannot see the boom ending.
