The Australian commercial vehicle market for trucks and large vans continues to defy the doomsayers with another strong sales performance in March, thanks largely to a very impressive result for market leader Isuzu and heavy duty maker Kenworth.
There were 4125 t4ucks and large vans registered in Australia in March, just 14 trucks behind the result in March last year or about 4.9 per cent down on that total.
Despite the small slide Isuzu boasted another stellar performance both overall and in heavy duty, selling a total of 1107 trucks to take 26.8 per cent of the total market, with its nearest rival, Hino only managing 363 registrations for just 8.8 per cent of the market, while Fuso in third registered 312 trucks for a 7.6 per cent market share.
It wan’t just in the overall market that Isuzu impressed, with another outstanding sales performance in heavy duty with 249 trucks registered and 18.3 per cent sector share, to again outsell heavy duty behemoth Volvo and claim second in the sector behind perpetual heavy duty market leader Kenworth.
The overall market registrations saw Kenworth, despite an all heavy duty roster, finish a close fourth, just 10 trucks behind Fuso, with the Bayswater produced big bangers finishing the month with 302 registrations and 7.3 per cent market share.
Volvo was fifth overall. With 249 registrations and Iveco sixth with 190. Behind those and filling out the top ten overall was Mercedes Benz with 107, Scania with 91, Fiat with 86 and Renault rounding out the top ten with 73. The latter two Euro makers underlining the low rise of the bonneted light trucks as an alternative to the Japanese light duty offerings.
This time last year Volvo was ahead of Kenworth in the heavy duty sector, finishing the first three months of 2024 with 798 heavy sales to Kenworths 701 for the same period, a 13 per cent advantage tot eh Swede. This year Kenworth has sold 766 heavies to Volvos 589, giving the Paccar brand a 30 per cent advantage at the end of the first quarter.
However as mentioned it is Isuzu that is the surprise stellar performer in heavy duty again trouncing Volvo, to be second behind Kenworth . Isuzu has now outsold Volvo for four of the past five months and at the end of the first quarter the Japanese brand leads Volvo in the heavy sector by 20 trucks.
Some of Isuzu’s success has been on the back of a model run out but more importantly it reflected the brands push into areas once dominated by the likes of Iveco’s old Acco, such as concrete agitator and waste disposal where Isuzu has a perfect product in its F Series heavies. Heaven help the opposition if Isuzu ever gets a competitive line haul truck.
Behind that battle for second place in heavy duty , Scania was a distant fourth with 91 registrations on March, ahead of Fuso with 75, Hino with 70, Mercedes with 69, Mack with 63 and MAN with 53, while DAF rounded out the top ten with 43.
Notably Freightliner again had a less than stellar performance in march selling just nine trucks for the month, a result that must have left Daimler management scratching their heads.
Heavy duty sales have dipped a little compared with the same month last year, with 1353 heavies sold in March against the 1533 sold in the same month in 2024, while YTD this year’s tally of 3380 is 110.7 per cent down on the first quarter total last year.
Isuzu tightened its grip on medium duty taking a 44.8 per cent market share with 279 sales in March, well ahead of Hino with 208 , while Fuso didn’t break three figures, registering just 71 mediums for the month.
Behind the Japanese trio, the next best was Iveco with 23, followed by Hyundai in another reasonable performance with11 medium sales , while Mercedes sold 10 medium duties for the month. One surprise was UD with just six mediums for the month, a dip that has left industry pundits scratching their heads for answers.
As usual Isuzu sold almost half of all light duty trucks registered in Australia last month with 579 N series finding their way on to our roads for a sector market share of 49.2 per cent . Its nearest rival and fellow Japanese truch maker Fuso struggled to keep up, with Fuso selling 166 light duty Canter models for a 14.1 per cent share.
Hino, which normally vies for second or third in the sector was well down, selling just 71 light duty in March, to be well behind third placed Iveco with 131 light duty registrations and even Fiat in fourth with 86 sales. Hino barely defeated Renault which registered 73 light duties, reflecting the Japanese brands product supply woes which apparently are only going to worsen as the year rolls on.
Mercedes Benz climbed back to be dominant in van sales for March selling 379 Sprinters for a share of 39.1 per cent, well ahead of looming Chinese rival LDV which finished second with 179 sales and a share of 18.6 per cent. Renault was third in the can sector with 135 sales, just ahead of Ford which sold 132 Transits, with Fiat on 80, Iveco just 39, VW with 18 and Peugeot two.
While sales have been fairly buoyant, insiders tell us that the continuing ‘catch up’ on deliveries following delays with supply and body builders is the main reason registrations have stayed so high and that there could be some bigger dips as the year unfolds
