At the conclusion of the tenth month of 2026 the Australian truck and heavy van market is continuing on a downward turn with the October sales off 18 per cent on the same month in 2025.
A total of 3215 trucks and heavy vans were sold in October down 706 units on Pctober 2025 with the year to date tally for the first ten months off a whopping 5200 units or 13.8 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Just about every sector and every brand suffered in the October down turn with few exceptions, Scania being one of them with the Swedish brand knocking out 120 trucks during the month, a 29 per cent rise on its results this time last year. placing it third in heavy duty ahead of Isuzu for the first time ever.
Market leader Izuzu still dominate the market but it to also suffered a 29 per cent decline on the volume it registered last year. Isuzu led the field with 796 registrations last month, down from 1130 this time in 2026. YTD Isuzu’s total sales are down from 10,590 for the first 10 months in 2025 to 7639 this year, a drop of 27.8 per cent.
The result was still good enough to give Isuzu a 24.8 per cent overall share of the total market easily dominating once again.
Isuzu’s nearest rival was Fuso with 290 regos placing it ahead of the still suffering Japanese rival and joint venture partner, Hino which could only manage 252 total sales for the month, Fuso grabbing nine per cent of the overall market to Hino’s 7.8 per cent. The pain for Hino is starting to ease with new stock starting to flow into the country in its 300 light duty range and more new compliant 500 Series medium duty set to arrive early in the New Year.
In the overall market Kenworth slipped to fifth behind its bitter rival Volvo, but only just and not in heavy duty. Kenworth registered 215 trucks, all of them heavy duty, while Volvo tallied 216, with 210 of those being heavy duty. That means that with two months to run till the end of year Kenworth leads the overall race for fourth place in the overall market and number one in the heavy sector. The Paccar brand has registered 2151 trucks so far this year, all but two of them in heavy, while Volvo has sold 1856 heavies and has sold 65 medium duties so far this year.
The heavy duty sector was down 11.9 per cent year on year with a total of 1079 sales in October down from the 1226 that were registered in October last year.
With Kenworth heading heavy duty and Volvo just five units behind for the month, the battle for third proved interesting with Scania bettering Isuzu to take the final podium spot, having registered 120 in the sector to beat its Japanese rival by 17 trucks.
Mercedes Benz performed well to be fifth, Fuso with 69 in sixth with 69 units, DAF in seventh with 63 UD and Mack both with 55 registrations, Fuso with 69 and DAF with 63, while Hino was eight with 62 and Mack and UD rounding out the top ten with 55 and 48 units respectively.
In medium duty the market was down overall with 392 units for the month in the sector, compared with 487 last year, a 19 per cent decrease on its 2025 result.
Isuzu led the sector with a whopping 62 .5 per cent share and a total of 245 registrations compared to second placed Fuso with 78 and the meagre 19 regos for Hino in third.
Iveco was in fourth with 17 trucks ahead of Hyundai with 11, Volvo with sixth, MAN with five, Foton (ICE) with four, Mercedes with three and UD and Foton Mobility (BEV) with two each.
In light duty the sector was down 26 per cent on this month last year with 998 registrations compared with 1353 in 2025.
Isuzu captured 48.5 per cent of the segment equating to 448 trucks with daylight in second, Fuso selling 166units and Hino 153 to be the next best.
They were the only brands in three figures in light duty, with Fiat in fourth with 85 units. while its former corporate sibling, Iveco was next best with 36, ahead of Mercedes with 34 and LDV with 28.
Foton Mobility registered 16 electric trucks to be eighth, while Hyundai was on 13, Renault on four, Ford on three and Foton (ICE) on two.
In vans the market was down 11.5 per cent on last year with 756 registrations for the month with Mercedes rulling the sector on 229 registrations, leading rival LDV with 198 and Ford which posted a strong tally of 124 of its Transit vans.
Behind the leading trio Fiat was next best with 69, then VW with 67, Renault with 44, Iveco on 21 and Peugeot clearing the last of its stock on four registrations.
While some pundits were eyeing a recovery in 2027, which may still happen, interest rate rises, growing insolvency and the continuing downturn has some backing away from too many positive opinions on the year ahead, however as usual, only time will tell.
