With just one month to run in 2025 the November sales figures for the commercial vehicle industry have been revealed showing the slow down in the market has continued.
Industry pundits however say the slow down won’t last forever and while 2026 may also provide some ‘soft’ numbers, a bounce back in 2027 is on the cards
Both Hino, which is set to suffer a well documented ‘lack of stock’ crisis in medium duty in 2026 and Isuzu, which is continuing its un paralleled market leadership say that the bounce back will come on the need for the industry to replace ageing fleets.
Hino Australia boss Richard Emery told a media briefing last week that the industry needs the breather that the slowdown will provide.
“We have had a succession of record years which the industry, particularly body builders have struggled to keep up with, but this will help us catch up,” Emery said.
“The boom has largely been about providing the extra capacity to the national fleet to meet demands and many fleets have been hanging on to older trucks to ensure maximum capacity,” he said.
“Inevitably those trucks will need to be replaced and our intelligence says that this will happen as consumer confidence continues to build coming out of 2026 and into ’27,” Emery added.
His comments were echoed the previous week by Isuzu which has a similar view to its smaller Japanese rival.
Overall November sales are down about 500 units or 11.8 per cent on the November figures from 2024 and year to date the numbers show the market is down 5643 units or 11.9 per cent, year on years.
Market leader Isuzu registered 969 truck sales in November down from the 1152 it sold this time last year, a drop of 15.8 per cent on its numbers for the same month last year. Isuzu’s year to date tally is also off, down from the 12,218 it sold in the first 11 months of last year to 11,559 it has sold so far this year.
Despite that the dominant market leader has a 26.7 per cent share of the overall market well clear of Hino on 12.2 per cent in second, while Fuso has 8.1 per cent in third barely 125 trucks ahead of heavy duty specialist Kenworth in fourth overall.
Heavy Duty is down 10 per cent on its November sales last year and overall this year it is off a whopping 17.3 per cent.
Kenworth led the charge and already has one hand on the best selling heavy title again this year with an unassailable lead on Volvo. Kenworth so far this year has sold 3118 heavy duty machines to Volvo’s 2124 with just one month of sales remaining.
In November Kenworth topped the heavy charts with 301 sales, 103 units ahead of Volvo, while Isuzu was just 26 units behind the Swedish brand with a tally of 172 for the month. Pundits believe Isuzu, recently launched new model range will only help the Japanese brand overtake Volvo in the heavy stakes, despite not having a line haul truck.
Scania was the only other heavy duty brand in triple figures with 113 units for the month, marking another commendable result for the ‘other’ Swedish brand.
DAF and Hino tied for fifth in heavies, each with 75 deliveries, while behind them came Mack with 60 units, Fuso with 59 and Mercedes with 57.
In Medium duty Isuzu maintained its perennial position at the top of the sector outselling all comers yet again capturing 49.8 per cent of the class chalking up 238 deliveries in a segment that is substantially down.
Medium deliveries in November were a massive 33.9 per cent or 229 trucks down on the sales of November 2024 result. Isuzu’s chart topping number was down on its result this time last year shedding 88 sales down 26 percent on November last year.
Behind Isuzu Hino registered 123 sales ahead of what the brand is predicting to be ‘about seven eight to 10 months of pain with its lack of medium duty Euro 6 product, while Fuso also was down with 77 registrations, down about 33 per cent on its result this time last year.
Hyundai, although a long way behind was fourth in the medium sector ahead of such long established brands such as Iveco, Mercedes and DAF.
Light duty was the surprise package of the sectors, being the only class to record a rise in volume over November 2024 results. A total of 1263 light duty trucks were registered in November up on the 1255 this time last year, a rise of just 0.6 per cent, an increase albeit an ever so small one.
It was another strong result for Isuzu in light duty taking 44.3 per cent segment share with 559 registrations of its light duty machines, clearly outstripping Hino with 270 units and 21.4 percent segment share, while Fuso was next best in third with 173 deliveries.
Commendable performances were noted for Fiat’s Ducato based cab chassis with 86 units to be a clear fourth ahead of rival Italian brand Iveco and Mercedes with 53. Foton Mobility had a good month with its electric trucks registering 21 sales
However year to date light duty is down 6.4 per cent on the total for the first 11 months of 2024, which was at 13,395 then and this year stands at 12,529.
In vans a surprise with LDV beating perennial class leader Mercedes in a rare moment of triumph for the rising Chinese brand, registering 188 heavy Deliver 9 vans to the 187 for Mercedes Sprinter. A small margin but a win all the same.
Ford had a bog month with its revamped Transit range taking third in the sector with 160 vans registered ahead of Renault, Fiat and Volkswagen, while Iveco finished second last with just 46 vans sold in November.
Vans were marginally down on this time last year registering 877 units in the sector compared to 977 last year.
