Australian Truck sales continued to rebound from the effects of Covid 19 in November with the tally up on the figures for the same month in 2019.
As Isuzu heads for another year of overall market leadership, Kenworth has continued its fightback over Volvo in the heavy sector to be well positioned to capture that category in 2020, while Hino registered its first win over Isuzu in Medium duty for 14 years and what is believed to be only the second time since records began.
Total truck sales for November amounted to 3174 units, the second best result so far in 2020, only behind the tax write off motivated 4620 trucks sold in June.
Isuzu led the market with 683 sales to take 21.5 per cent share, with Hino taking second with 480 units and 15.1 per cent of the market and another strong performance from Fuso with 329 sales and 10.4 per cent share.
Kenworth’s mortgage on the Heavy market was secured with another strong performance in November. After facing foreclosure from its arch-rival Volvo at the end of July when it led the Heavy market by 103 units, it finished November 179 trucks behind Kenworth, leaving the Swedish brand little chance of a much coveted win in the Heavy market for the year. Kenworth sold 242 trucks to Volvo’s 147 heavies with Mercedes Benz third on 112 and Isuzu four with 89, two clear of Scania with 87 units
It is understood that Volvo may have continued to be hampered by chain of supply issues that prevented it from delivering enough trucks in the last few months to defend its earlier lead in the heavy sector.
Kenworth’s result placed it fourth in the overall market ahead of Volvo in fifth on 157 total sales (medium and heavy combine), Iveco with 149, Mercedes with 145 and Scania 87.
For Hino its win in medium duty caught, many by surprise, not the least being Hino itself, with executives unaware of the win until contacted by T&B News.It is the first time Hino has bettered the perpetual market leader in any sector since November 2006, when then company boss Roger Hall was engaged in a fierce battle with then Isuzu boss Ron Jowett.
While Isuzu may have lost ground to Hino in medium duty, in light duty Isuzu took a dominant 38.6 per cent market share with 392 sales while Hino moved 225 light duty trucks to take 22.2 per cent share and Fuso held 17.6 per cent with 176 trucks.
Equally dominant in van sales was Mercedes Benz with 179 to be well clear of Ford with 126 sales and VW with 104.
Strong sales for November means that overall sales for the year could go close to 35000 units depending on the results for December, but T&B News is told that order banks are strong for the final month of the year.
