Data from. the truck industry’s latest May sales numbers for what it is describing as the ‘Alternative Fuels’ sector, shows that the internal combustion engines continue to hold an iron like grip on sales numbers despite some ever so slight improvement in Alt Fuel commercial sales
The figures show that Alt Fuel trucks held market share of just 1.38 per cent of the total Australian truck sales year to date put to the end of May.
In raw numbers that means a total of 212 trucks sold since 1 January out of a total sales volume of 15,354 units across all brands power systems and sectors.
The light duty sector has the highest sales of Alt Fuel trucks having registered 146 units across both hybrid diesels and battery electric powered models in the first five months.
Hino sold the most Alt Fuel trucks having registered 84 of its hybrid powered machines so far this year. The diesel hybrids that Hino has been pushing hard in recent times was the dominant force in the new sector with its combination of a traditional diesel primary power plant assisted by an electric assistance motor and recharging generator using regenerative braking and battery power assistance. Hino’s Hybrid holds 39.6 per cent of the Alt Fuel truck market.
In terms of pure battery electric Chinese rival Foton Mobility faired best again having sold 50 of its battery electric light duty trucks so far this year for an overall market share in the sector of 23.6 per cent.
If all battery electric powered commercial vehicles are tallied, which would include light, medium and heavy duty electric trucks and heavy electric powered vans then the battery electric numbers then overwhelm Hino’s hybrid volumes.
Over all those brands, sizes and sectors battery electric accounted for 128 units compared with Hino hybrids with 84 units across the five months.
Battery-electric commercials account for 60 per cent of the YTD alt fuel sales which some suggest points to pure EVs are building momentum.
Breaking down the number of battery electric commercials by brand and size it shows that behind Foton, Ford registered 23 of its battery electric Transit vans, Mercedes-Benz sold 15 of its Sprinter electric vans and Chinese brand LDV registered 11 of its electric Delivery 9 models.
In medium duty trucks just two medium Volvo electric trucks have been sold so far, while the Swedish brand has sold eight of its heavy duty electric trucks so far in 2026.
Fuso has registered eight of its light duty electric eCanters so far this year and Hyundai has sold seven of its battery electric light duty models, while Mercedes-Benz has registered four of its electric heavy duty models.
The tallies for the month of May saw 27 light duty Alt Fuel truck models ( hybrid and battery electric) sold, followed by nine battery electric vans, with two heavy duty battery electrics and just one medium battery electric across the month.
So far this year there have been 12 heavy duty battery electric trucks registered, eight of them Volvos and four from Mercedes which represents just 0.24 per cent of the overall market.
YTD units (all diesel-electric hybrids)4. Electric Vans Growth: FORD leads LDV segment with 23 YTD battery-electric units5. Technology Mix: Battery/Electric dominates (128 YTD units) vs Diesel-Electric hybrid (84 YTD)6. Heavy Duty Adoption: Only 12 YTD units in HD segment (Volvo 8, Mercedes 4) – lowest adoption7. May Performance: 39 alt fuel units sold representing 18.4% of YTD total in a single month.
May 2026 represented 18per cent of the YTD the Alt Fuel total and according to low emission pundits it suggests an accelerating adoption trend.
