The Australian truck and heavy commercial vehicle market has finished November just 733 units away from breaking the overall sales record set in 2022, and with strong order books reported for December, it is likely to finish this year up almost 10 per cent on last year’s record.
The November total market result was just nine units off the tally for the same month last year, with 4224 trucks and vans moved, giving a total for the year to date of 43,646 units, and save for a major calamity the new record is likely to be around 48,000 units for the year, all things being equal.
Isuzu again dominated with 27.1 per cent of the overall market and 1145 units in November, giving the Japanese brand a total of 12,598 units for the year to date. Closest rival Hino had a strong month but with Isuzu’s dominance in recent times, a strong month for Hino means less than half of the sales its rival registered. Hino finished November with 514 units and 12.1 per cent of the overall market.
Fuso was third overall with 381 trucks in November, registering exactly nine per cent of the overall market.
However all eyes were on the battle for heavy duty market leadership between Volvo and Kenworth. While Volvo was leading the market by a small margin a couple of months back, Kenworth has inevitably hauled in its Swedish competitor and finished November with 338 heavy duty trucks to take 18 per cent of the HD market. That result combined with its strong October result has put Kenworth 107 units ahead of Volvo year to date, almost certainly giving it the whip hand when it comes to the battle for the Heavy Weight Championship.
Volvo’s 289 Heavies in November gave it 18 per cent of the sector for the month, but it will now take a miracle number in December for it to finish in front of its Paccar rival. Volvo also moved 16 medium duty trucks so in the Overall sales tally Kenworth was fourth in November with all its sales in heavy, while Volvo’s 305 placed it fifth overall.
Isuzu was third in heavy duty with 239 units putting it ahead of Scania’s 138 in the sector , while Mercedes was the only other brand to top 100 in the segment, with 112 Heavies in November.
Back in the overall market sales figures Mercedes finished November in sixth with 203 vehicles sold, 102 units behind Volvo but 38 units ahead of Iveco in seventh with 165 total sales. Scania was eight with its 138 sales, UD ninth with 102 and Mack gave the Volvo Group three brand in the top ten overall, having sold 98 trucks in November.
While most attention was on the battle for heavies Isuzu quietly blitzed the medium duty sector finishing with just shy of half the sales in the sector with 372 medium duty trucks in November for 49.3 per cent of the market . That put Isuzu 139 trucks ahead of Hino’s 30.9 per cent share and 272 medium duty tally, while Fuso had a disappointing result in the sector with just 78 sales for the month and 10.3 per cent total.
Daylight was next, with a massive gap between Fuso’s result and that of the fourth placed medium duty competitor, Volvo with its 16 units. Next was UD and MAN, both with 13 medium duty sales for the month, while Iveco sold 11 trucks and the slowly improving Hyundai moved 10 medium trucks.
Mercedes’ six medium duty sales, Sea electric’s two units and DAFs single medium duty sale wrapped up the tally for the category.
In light duty Isuzu again ran rampant, capturing 41.3 per cent of the highly competitive sector with 534 trucks in November, more than double the 228 sales that Fuso snared. Fuso again narrowly beat Hino in light duty for the month, as it did back in in July, august and September this year . the Daimler owned brand finished the month with 17.6 per cent, while Hino grabbed 17.3 per cent from its 224 sales.
Iveco moved 135 of its Daily based light trucks while Mercedes was next best with 85 of its Sprinter based trucks. Behind that Fiat sold 43 light trucks, Renault 16, Hyundai 11, VW nine and electric truck maker Foton Mobility with five battery electric machines, one more than Ford with four Transit based trucks.
Mercedes with its Sprinter van dominated the heavy van market selling 265 units in November for 46.7 per cent of the van sector. Renault was next best with 142 Master vans and 25 per cent share of the sector. VW moved 66 Crafter vans to be third in the sector ahead of Fiat on 61, Iveco with just 24 Daily vans and Ford with 10 Transits.
It is clear that the market has softened slightly in the past few months, but with the residual gains the market made in meeting the pent up demand in the first half of the year, means that the totals are well ahead of the 2022 tallies.
With another record in sight for this year, the speculation is can the market better this year’s total in 2024. Only time and demand will tell.
