It’s been another fascinating month in the Australian commercial vehicle market with interesting numbers across all sectors of the market in October.
Isuzu was the overall market leader yet again, moving 726 trucks for the month capturing just under a quarter of the entire market with 24.1 per cent share, while Japanese rival Hino slotted into a strong second with 402 sales and 13.4. per cent and Fuso was third with 309 trucks and 10.1 per cent share in October.
The battle for the coveted Heavy Duty sector has continued its swing back in favour of Kenworth after Volvo relinquished a strong lead at the end of July. Volvo was on track to capture the Heavy sector for 2020 up until the middle of the year but Kenworth’s strong bounce back in August, September and now October has put it 84 trucks ahead of Volvo year to date. Kenworth punched out 230 trucks for the month and took 22.7 per cent share of the sector, while Volvo sold 143 trucks for a 14.1 per cent market share.
It is believed that Volvo was severely constrained by supply hold ups that limited the number of trucks it could produce and deliver to customers in October.
The big performer in Heavy Duty for the month was Mercedes Benz which finished close behind Volvo with 127 heavy duty sales for the month to be third in the heavy sector ahead of Isuzu with 113 heavy sales.
In Medium duty Isuzu put in a stunner taking almost half the market with 253 units sold and 47.2 per cent market share in the sector for the month, while Hino captured 29.7 per cent share with 159 medium duty sales in October and Fuso moved 84 units for 15.7 per cent market share. Between them the three Japanese brands captured 92.6 per cent of the total 536 medium duty sales in the month.
Light duty saw a similar Japanese brand dominance with Isuzu securing 360 sales in October to take 38.5 per cent of the market ahead of Hino with 201 trucks and 21.5 per cent market share and a strongly performing Fuso which garnered 183 sales and 19.6 per cent market share.
In vans Volkswagen usurped usual market leader Mercedes Benz to lead the sector with 150 vans in October ahead of Benz with 138 and Renault with 103 units for the month.
Despite Covid and the ongoing difficulties the overall truck market has remained reasonably buoyant with total sales across all segments of 3011 units giving the market a year to date tally of 27882 units and a likely projected end of year total somewhere around 35000 units, a result that many people believed was not possible back in April at the start of the pandemic.
