An ever so gentle slow down is becoming evident in the Australian heavy commercial vehicle market with the figures for February hitting email boxes overnight.
While other truck publications are talking up a strong performance, the fact is just about every sector and every brand saw sales drop over the same month in 2024, which given the short selling month, is the only way to compare apples with apples.
The figures from the Truck Industry Council T-Mark sales stats or the month just gone, show a drop of just over four per cent on truck and large van sales against the corresponding February numbers from 2024, while the year to date figures for the first two months of 2025 are down just one per cent on the same period last year, thanks partly to the strong sales in January.
A total of 3446 trucks and large vans were registered in Australia in February marginally down from the 3592 sold this time last time last year, while the year to date tally for the first two months stands at 6232 vehicles, down 63 units on the 6295 for January- February 2024.
Perennial market leader, Isuzu, again led the overall market sales tally with 1029 registrations in February, down 21 units or just two per cent on the February 2024 total. However the brand strengthened its market share slightly capturing 29.9 per cent of the overall market.
While Isuzu captured almost one in three sales in the market in February, nearest rival Hino captured 10.1 percent share or one in ten truck sales for the month.
While Isuzu is in a runout phase with an almost entirely new model line up about to be launched, Hino is heading into a vortex of stock availability with a massive gap in production for its medium and some of its light duty models in coming months.
Hino registered 347 trucks in February, putting it comfortably ahead of third place Fuso which registered 266 units. Again, the figures for all three of the dominant Japanese brands were off marginally in February, with Isuzu fairing best suffering a drop of just two per cent in monthly sales figures, as previously mentioned, while Hino was off a more significant 16.1 per cent on its 414 sales in the same month last year, and Fuso was down 12.1 per cent on its tally of 303 from February 2024.
As mentioned last month, truck makers are generally reporting a slowdown in order taking in recent months and are crediting the continued buoyance in registration numbers to the long delays in truck supply, both in terms of stock as well as in hold ups at body builders. They expect the registration figures to continue to slow in coming months as the demand and supply come back towards equilibrium. Many are saying this is the breather the industry needs after the past five years of frenetic sales activity.
Kenworth was fourth overall the market with 248 sales, all of them in heavy duty, taking 7.2 per cent of the overall market, 42 units ahead of Volvo in fifth overall with six per cent market share.
Mercedes-Benz was the only other brand in triple figures taking sixth overall with 119 sales, ahead of Scania on 92 Iveco on 82, Mack on 55 and Fiat rounding out the top ten with 54 sales in the month.
The heavy duty sector, with a total 1119 sales, was down 189 units or 14.4 per cent compared with the February result for the sector last year.
Kenworth naturally led the charge again in the heavy duty sector with its 248 sales in February which was down 11.1 per cent on last February’s 279. Similarly Swedish rival Volvo was down with 203 heavy sales, a drop of 17.1 per cent on the same month result last year, while Isuzu continued to close in on the big Swede in the heavy realm.
This time last year Volvo sold 46 more heavies than Isuzu, while last month Isuzu’s 193 heavy duty tally, was just ten trucks adrift of Volvo. The performance was underlined by the fact that while Volvo dropped 17 per cent in the sector year on year, Isuzu was only off 3.9 per cent.
Mercedes and Scania duked it out for fourth place with the German Daimler brand winning out by just one truck, 93 to Scania’s 92 heavies.
Behind them Mack and Hino squared off with 55 trucks a piece, just ahead of UD with 47 heavy duty sales, Fuso on 42 and DAF on 29, with Iveco just out of the top ten on 24, but ahead of MAN with 13, and Freightliner a disappointing 11, while Penske brands Western Star with eight and Dennis Eagle with six ,were the only other brands to bother the scorer in the sector.
In medium duty there were 569 truck sold in the sector for the month, a drop of 12.3 per cent on February 2024, when there were 649 medium duty machines registered.
Isuzu with 273 sales was down 19.4 per cent, compared with its February 2024 result, while rival Hino sold 192, just five units or 2.5 percent down on its 2024 result, while Fuso actually had a small gain in medium selling 73 trucks, up ten units or 15 per cent on its result for the same month last year.
With the three major Japanese brands dominating the medium sector by capturing 94.5 per cent of the market between them, Korean brand Hyundai continued its slow but steady climb, to be fourth overall with ten medium duty registrations, for a meagre 1.8 per cent share. However it was the only other brand in the sector to break double figures.
The rest of the medium duty results saw UD with six, DAF with four, Mercedes, Volvo and Iveco all with three each, while MAN rounded out the tail with two trucks for the month in the sector.
In the light duty sector overall sales tallied 1023 sales for the month, a drop of 2.2 per cent on the 1047 moved in the division this time last year.
Isuzu dominated proceedings, actually selling more light duty models this year than last, with 563 sales, a rise of 10.4 per cent or 53 units on the February result in 2024. Isuzu’s result in February gave it a whopping 55 per cent share of the sector to underline its dominance in the volume area of the market.
Fuso once again trumped its rival Hino in light duty, with that result likely to become more entrenched as the year rolls on, with Hino having to endure the well documented lack of supply from Japan, thanks to the consequences surrounding its past emission/ fuel consumption fraud scandal in Japan.
Fuso took second in the ‘tiddler’ class with 151 units and a 14.8 per cent share while Hino bravely battled to third with 100 light duty sales for 9.9 per cent share. This was a lot better than the meagre 60 trucks it moved in the sector in January but well down on the 168 it sold in February last year.
Behind the three dominant Japanese brands there appears to be an inexorable rise in sales for the crop of what we call, ‘the Euro van based cab chassis truck offering’. These are the likes of Iveco, Fiat, Renault, Mercedes, VW and Ford, along with Chinese brand LDV. Between them this part of the light duty truck market accounted for 200 sales in February which is around 20 per cent of the sector. Individually each brand also seems to be building their foot holds in the light truck market, with Iveco selling 55 Daily trucks for 5.3 per cent market share, its Italian sibling Fiat with 54 Ducato trucks and 5.2 per cent share, while Renault sold 45 Master based light trucks for 4.4 per cent share.
Mercedes sold 23 Sprinter based trucks, LDV 19 of its Deliver 9 cab chassis and Hyundai 11 of its more traditional cab over Mighty light duty models. Ford sold six Transit based trucks, while VW rounded out the sector with just two Crafters.
Interestingly electric brand Foton Mobility did not bother the scorer in either light or medium duty.
Year to date for the first two months of the year Light duty is down 6.3 per cent on the same time last year when there were 1870 trucks sold, compared with 1751 moved in January and February this year.
In the Van sector Chinese brand LDV has been zeroing in on market leader Mercedes-Benz for many months and the relatively new brand finally leapfrogged the longtime sales leader in the sector in February. LDV registered 204 of its big Deliver 9 vans for 27.8 per cent market share compared to the 192 Sprinter vans Mercedes registered in February, for 26.1 per cent share. It was a narrow victory, but given the history and how quickly newcomer LDV has built its sales to better the long established rival, it really was a significant turning point in the narrative for the van sector.
Behind LDV and Benz, Ford took third with 146 of its large Transits, while Renault was next with 97 Masters, Fiat with 48 Ducatos, Iveco with 29 Dailys, VW with 16 Crafter vans and Peugeot just three of its large vans.
With order rates reportedly dropping and the numbers already lagging those of the last few record setting years many believe he market will endure a contraction this year for the first time in a few years.
