The Australian truck market set an all-time high monthly record in June as the Covid 19 bounce back and the instant tax write off spurred the market to a massive 4741 sales, topping June 2020 by 120 units and the June figure for the record year of 2018 by more than 500 units.
At the mid -point of 2021 the year-to-date sales tally is 19,920 units, just 50 trucks behind June 2018’s tally or 19,970, with all of the major brands recording strong sales, led by Isuzu which again topped the sales charts with 1085 sales, ironically not the brands best ever month.
Isuzu captured 22.9 per cent of the market with long-time rival Hino scoring its best every monthly sales tally with 761 units and 16.1 per cent share, as well as beating Isuzu in the medium duty sector. Fuso also had its best ever month in Australia with 568 sales and 12 per cent market share.
Kenworth was fourth in the overall market with its 325 tally, while Mercedes-Benz claimed fifth with a total of 198, which includes vans and light duty Sprinter based trucks.
The Paccar brand also continued its dominance and strong result in June, moving it even further ahead of Volvo in the all-important fight for Heavy Duty supremacy. Kenworth tally for the month, more than double Volvo’s total of 146, with the Swedish maker finishing only seven trucks ahead of Mercedes-Benz with 139 heavies. Scania and Isuzu battled out fourth place in Heavy Duty, with the Swede selling 122 trucks and finishing just four units ahead of Isuzu on 118 heavies.
Scania’s year to date figures for the first six months are the best half year figures the Swedish brand has ever recorded. Its 576 deliveries for the first half underlines the success the brand has had in recent times, because it wasn’t that long ago that would have been a respectable full year figure for Scania.
Fuso with 88 heavy duty sales moved past Hino’s 79 to be sixth in the segment, while Mack on 66, DAF on 61 and UD on 59 were the next best in heavy ahead of Iveco with 43, and Western Star with 42 sales. Freightliner continues to fall short of expectations, with its 30 heavy duty sales belying the true potential of its Cascadia model.
As mentioned Hino topped Isuzu by seven trucks in Medium Duty, claiming 293 sales for the month, an occurrence that has only happened a handful of times in the history of the two brands in Australia. Fuso was third with 182 sales, with fourth placed Mercedes-Benz so far behind it almost doesn’t register, selling just 15 units in the medium sector.
Isuzu was supreme in light duty selling almost double the number of trucks that Hino moved. Isuzu’s 681 sales and 42 per cent market share was 292 ahead of Hino’s 389 sales, which gave it and 24 per cent share. Fuso had a great month in light duty but the 298 trucks it sold pale when measured against Isuzu’s result. The three Japanese brands between them captured 84.4 per cent of the light duty market. Mercedes’ 44 light truck sales was the next best behind the dominant Japanese brands.
In vans Mercedes-Benz dominated with 283 sales for the month, 22 units ahead of Renault , while VW was third with 161 sales and Ford in fourth with 119.
With all of the major truck groups continuing to report strong demand and order books through the remainder of 2021 some pundits believe that the 2018 record of just over 41000 units can be bettered, a result that few would have believed just a year ago.
