Truck sales figures for August have revealed a conundrum that indicates a rise in sales both for the month year on year and for the year to date, but in reality most sales dipped in comparison to the same time last year.
The conundrum has been brought about by the inclusion of several new brands that swelled the overall sales totals but masked the fact that most brands endured a small dip in sales by comparison to their 2023 performances.
The Truck Industry Council (TIC) revealed that its T-Mark c0mmercial vehicle sales statistics have been skewed by tallies from Chinese van and light truck brand LDV as well as Peugeot, which were not captured in the results in 2023 because the brands, although they were active in the market were not TIC subscribers until this year.
As a consequence the sales numbers for both LDV and Peugeot Boxer cab/chassis and van sales for January to June as well in July and August, hav4 only now been included. This means that approximately 2,000 additional vehicles have been registered to the T-Mark numbers this year.
That makes a noticeable difference, particularly in the van statistics that has inflated the numbers and made things look more rosy than they would normally have been.
Isuzu, the perennial leader in the overall truck market held that spot once more registering a total of 1070 trucks across all market sectors to take an overall share of 26 per cent across the market, well clear of nearest rival Hino, which registered 408 trucks for 9.9 per cent market share.
The big surprise was that heavy duty hero, Kenworth, not Japanese all rounder Fuso, was third in the truck sales standings, with the Paccar brand registering 327 all heavy duty trucks, while Fuso could only manage 289 trucks for the month.
The Kenworth result has boosted the brand’s chances of holding to its long-held and coveted crown as number one in heavy duty, having outstripped Swedish rival Volvo for another month. Kenworth moved 130 more trucks than Volvo, although the Swede’s tally also included nine medium duty models in its overall tally.
The results show that Isuzu was down 113 units on its August 2023 result, while Hino was down 25 year trucks, Fuso down 58, Volvo down 111 while Kenworth was up 41 units, bucking the overall trend.
While the total commercial vehicle sales for August were also slightly up on the 2023 result, if you looked only at the bottom line, the addition of LDV and Peugeot sales swelled the number. The 2023 total for August was 3922, while last month’s tally was 4114, a rise of 192 units year on year. However LDV vans and light cab chassis models added 248 units, with Peugeot adding one more unit for the month.
The Year to date tallies for the first eight months of 2023 saw 31498 commercial vehicles registered, while this year the eight month tally stands at 33709. Again this has been inflated artificially by the belated inclusion of the LDV and Peugeot sales from January to June, which were only added in to the overall tally in August.
While Isuzu ruled the roost overall, the all important heavy duty sector saw Kenworth clearly shine again, pulling further ahead of Volvo in the quest to be number one in category again this year. Earlier in the year Volvo again looked to be in a position to challenge for the number one spot this year and led the category outright as late as June, when it held a sender margin over Kenworth. However the Paccar brand has registered two stellar months since then and leads the sector by 190 units YTD as at the end of August. For the month Kenworth’s 327 put it 139 units ahead of Volvo for the eighth month.
The underlying story in heavy duty is the creeping growth of the Isuzu brand and its heavy duty offerings, that don’t absolutely cover every niche n the sector, but underlines how popular the Japanese trucks have become in the so called ‘vocational’m sectors such as tipper dog, concrete agitator and garbage collection. To some extent Isuzu has picked up many of the sales abdicated by Iveco with the demise of its locally built Acco models. In August Isuzu sold 184 trucks in heavy duty, just four units shy of Volvo’s tally. Although Isuzu is slowly making inroads to the big two, its YTD results to the end of August puts it 532 units behind Volvo, so the management at Waco won’t be too nervous about being knocked off for second spot in heavy duty – just yet at least.
Next best behind Kenworth, Volvo and Isuzu in the sector was the consistently strong performing Scania with 126 heavy duty sales for the month. Scania’s combination of dependable, advanced engineering and technology along with strong fuel economy, continues to make it a compelling proposition for heavy duty buyers. While it is not ultimately challenging for outright honours the ‘other’ Swedish brand has for the past few years continued to see north of 100 heavies a month, after years of bumping around 70- to 80 units each month.
Behind Scania was Mercedes Benz which registered 92 trucks in August, in stark contrast to its Daimler Trucks US stablemate Freightliner, that plummeted to a monthly total of just 12 trucks. Hino with 75 and Fuso with 63 trucks were next best in the heavy sector, while Volvo stablemates, Mack and UD scored 61 and 59 trucks respectively.
DAF with 45 , MAN with 31, Iveco with 23 and Western Star with 16 followed in the heavy sales chart, with the Western Star brand outselling its US sibling Freightliner for the first time in years.
There was signs that the medium sector sales were also a little febrile in August, which despite being up on July results they were 5.2 per cent down on the results from August last year. There were 657 medium duty trucks sold last month, down from 693 in the same month last year. While the August figure was up on the July one, the reality is July sales are generally always slightly affected by the ‘hangover’ effect from end of financial year sales rushes that often occur in June.
Isuzu topped the sector, not surprisingly, holding a dominant 48.4 per cent of the segment having sold 318 trucks in August well ahead off number two Hino with 202 and Fuso with just 83 units.
As per usual the medium sales race drops way quickly from there with the fourth place this month being claimed by relative newcomer, Hyundai with 16 mediums , its best ever result in this sector, helping the Korean brand outstrip long standing brands, Iveco and Volvo with nine units each, with Mercedes and DAF both with five each and MAN rounding out the tally with four trucks for the month.
Light duty truck sales in August dropped 6.4 per cent to 1190 units compared to the same month in 2023, when 1272 light trucks were moved. The overall YTD tally for light duty is also down from 11,114 fr the first eight months last year to just 9500 this year, a drop if around 14.5 per cent year on year.
Again Isuzu dominated the sector. with 568 registrations which represented a 47.7 per cent share of the sector, putting it well ahead of Japanese rivals, Fuso and Hino. Fuso again bettered Hino in light duty with the Canter range registering 143 trucks to Hino’s 131. All three of the Japanese brands were down on their August 2023 sales figures with Isuzu down 12.2 per cent, Fuso off 27.7 per cent and Hino dropping a whopping 33.5 per cent compared with their results this time last year.
Behind the Japanese came the strongly resurgent Euro brands with their van based light duty cab chassis trucks. Fiat was the best of this group taking fourth in the sector with 99 registrations of its Ducati light truck, followed by Mercedes with 85 Sprinter based trucks, Iveco with 84 Dailys and then Renault with 29.
Hyundai had a good month for its sales record with 17 light duty Mightys sold, while the inclusion of LDV for the first time saw it score 15 light truck sales in August while Ford registered 12 Transit light trucks, VW with six Crafters and Foton Mobility a single electric truck to its credit.
In Vans Mercedes-Benz again led the way with 268 Sprinters registered in the month and 27.9 per cent share in the sector. However the new inclusion of LDV saw its cut into the German brand’s almost unchallenged dominance of the van market. The Chinese brand, distributed by Neville Crichton’s Ateco registered 233 LDV vans. for 24.3 per cent share, proving the strong price and features package the brand is pushing in Australia.
Renault was the next best with another strong month that netted it 182 van sales, while Ford also had a good month with 106 Transit sales , to be ahead of Fiat with 75 and VW with 63, Iveco with 31 Daily vans and Peugeot only bothering the scorer with a single sale for its large van offering.
With the pressures on the Australian economy growing and interest rate speculation adding to the headwinds it will be fascinating to see if the commercial vehicle market can weather the storm and record another record this year with four months remaining before te line is drawn under the annual tally