The Australian new heavy vehicle market had another tough sales month in May with sales of 3351 trucks and vans for the month a sales drop of 14.5 per cent compared with the same month in 2024.
The sales numbers continue to drop in comparison with the past three years of record sales runs and May signalled another significant drops in sales across al brands and segments, causing truck company executives some nervous times as we race to the end of financial year and the half way point in the calendar year.
At the end of the fifth month last year 17,694 trucks and heavy vans had been sold but at the end of May this year just 15,354 had been registered, a drop of 13.2 per cent yar on year.
Perpetual market leader, Isuzu topped the charts but even the number one seller suffered a significant sales drop in May registering 785 trucks compared with 1135 when it led the market in May last year. That represented a drop o 30.8 per cent and while Isuzu still leads the YTD sales charts it is 1,542 trucks behind where it was this tie in 2025.
Interestingly Hino, which had predicted tough times this year as it battled supply issues particularly of its 500 Series medium duty models, is actually holding up well as we run toward the mid-point of the sales year. Hino sold 325 trucks in May just 33 units less than it moved I May last year. The quite meagre drop of just nine per cent in a market that is down so much overall must have made the hearts of Hino executives soar when compared with some of the drops its opponents have suffered.
Fuso was third overall in the sales race with 287 registrations in May, a drop of 10.5 per cent compred with last year.
Behind the top three Japanese brands Kenworth was next best with 185 units, all in the heavy duty market but a drop of 33 per cent compared with its May 2025 sales.
Volvo was fifth in the sales charts with the Swedish brand also dropping sales year on year, selling 162 trucks last month compared with 182 in May last year. Mercedes-Benz claimed sixth with 112 registrations, ahead of Scania in seventh registering 88 trucks, Iveco with just 84 sales, DAF in ninth with 83 and Fiat rounding out the top ten with 61 les of its Ducato based cab chassis trucks.
As mentioned earlier, Kenworth led the battle for heavy duty supremacy with its 186 registrations just 14 trucks more than Isuzu which again had a very strong showing claiming second in the heavy sector with 172 trucks, putting it eight units ahead of Volvo in third.
Scania sails on like a supertanker on the high seas and it seems that no matter what heavy winds or seas the industry has to battle, Scania sails on seemingly unaffected by the prevailing conditions and again in May registered 88 heavy duty models, virtually the same as it does just about every month.
Close behind in fifth in heavy duty was Fuso with 85 registrations, just ahead of its current parent company Mercedes with 80 big trucks and DAF with 79. Hino and UD tied on 66 heavy units each, while Mack rounded out the top ten with 41 sales.
In medium duty Isuzu was top of the charts with239 registrations, well ahead of Fuso with 67 trucks in second while Hino’s dearth of medium duty product had it back in third with 64 registrations.
Iveco found itself in fourth in the sector with 12 registrations and surprisingly Hyundai was fifth with 12 medium duty sales.
The rest of the medium duty sector was in dribs and drabs with Mercedes moving six trucks in the segment just ahead of DAF, Foton and MAN all with four trucks, while Volvo was tenth with two medium duty regos.
Isuzu’s 374 registrations saw it top light duty with a market share of 41.6 per cent, almost double what closest rival Hino could manage with 195 sales and 21.7 per cent share of the sector. Fuso was in third selling 135 light duty models.
The top three Japanese brands boxed out the segment with Fiat the best of the rest registering 6 light duty models to Iveco’s 55, Mercedes’ 26, LDV’s 25 and Hyundai’s 11 while Renault with six and Ford with five round out the top ten in the light sector.
Both medium duty and light duty as sectors were down with medium off a whopping 38. 3 per cent compared with May 2025and light duty down 17 .4 per cent on its results from this time last year.
The Van sector remained relatively buoyant with 945 sales in May, just 44 units dfown on its May ’25 tally of 989 units, a small four per cent fall year on year.
With all the headwinds facing the industry its likely sales will continue their march backwards for the rest of this year with hopes of a pick up in 2027.
