The Australian truck and heavy vehicle market continued to cool in October with sales across the board and for every leading manufacturer being down on the result for the same month in 2024.
Total sales for trucks and vans over 3.5 tonnes tallied at 3878, down 45 per cent or 647 units on the October ’24 result of 4525.
Across the industry talk is of a quietening with sales enquiries falling away after a series of record years.
The Year to date tally up to the end of last month is standing at 33727 units, just over 9000 units down on the same time last year and the lowest end of October result since the COVID affected 2020.
The results also saw every major maker dip in sales including overall market leader, Isuzu, which registered 1077 units last month, compared with 1186 for the same month in ’24.
Every sector save for light duty was down on its October 2024 results.
CEO of the Truck Industry Council, Tony McMullen said the October T-Mark sales figures indicate the new truck market remains sluggish.
“The October result continues the downward trend that we have witnessed for the majority of the year,” McMullen said.
“Although the sales decline has stabilised over the past few months, we continued to witness solid sales in light duty in October, which was pleasing to see,” he said.
“Economic conditions across most business sectors in Australia remain weak and it appears this lack of business confidence is reflecting in new truck and van sales,” McMullen added.
While sales were off Isuzu led the market with its result, ahead of long time nearest rival, Hino with 412 registrations in October, while Kenworth usurped Fuso for third place in the market overall, despite the Paccar brand being almost solely a heavy duty seller. Kenworth registered 317 trucks, 316 of them heavies and just one medium duty model in its tally. Fuso had to settle for fourth overall with 312 registrations.
Volvo was well down in fifth with 197 sales, a drop of 28 per cent on its October ’24 results, and while its four opposition brands ahead of it on the sales table all registered drops, they were generally much lower than the Swedish maker. Isuzu is down 9.1 per cent, Hino down five per cent, Fuso off seven per cent and Kenworth down 15 per cent.
Behind Volvo in the overall tally was Iveco in sixth with a strong 124 sales ahead of Scania with 96 trucks registered for the month, Mercedes Benz with 79, Mack with 73 and rounding out the top ten was Fiat with 65.
Kenworth will not be beaten for heavy duty supremacy, despite two months of sales figures still to come. Its result in October puts it 788 units ahead of rival Volvo for the year to date tally and only a miracle could take the crown away from the Paccar brand.
Overall heavy duty tallied 1221 units in October, down 20 per cent on the YTD numbers of this time last year, when 1527 trucks were registered.
Behind Kenworth and Volvo in heavies was Isuzu with 163 again placing the Japanese brand third in the sector, a reflection on the continuing and increasing success of its heavies in vocational applications such as waste, concrete and tipper operations.
Behind them and next best in fourth for the sector was Scania with a consistent 96, Fuso with a strong 89 heavy duty regos and Mack in sixth with 73. DAF out pointed Mercedes to be seventh with 61 sales, while the Daimler brand sold a lowly 51 heavy duty models to be eighth in the sector. UD was ninth with 43 while Hino rounded out the sector top ten with a disappointing 35 trucks for October.
Medium duty sales were also down on the same month last year, registering a significant 27 per cent drop year on year. This time last year the sector tallied 698 sales, with last month’s result netting just 487 registrations for the sector, a drop of 30.2 per cent or 211 units on the same time in ’24.
Isuzu was the dominant brand holding a commanding 49.5 per cent for the month with 241 medium registrations, well ahead of Hino’s 137, while Fuso’s 79 placed it a distant third.
Interestingly Hyundai was again the next best after the dominant Japanese brands in medium duty, albeit well back in fourth with 10 of its medium duty models being registered. Behind the Korean brand came MAN with seven, Mercedes with five, Iveco with four and UD with three, while Volvo scored a single medium duty sale in October.
As previously mentioned, light duty was the only glimmer of positivity in the overall market with an increase in overall sales compared with this time last year.
Light duty has been down generally since the start of the year, compared with 2024, so the improvement in October result came as a bit of a surprise, 1,353 trucks registered last month, up 50 units on October 2024, a three per cent improvement on last years result. However year-to-date the sector is down 7.2 per cent on the first ten months of 2024.
Isuzu dominated October light duty registrations with 52.8 per cent of the market, registering 715 of its N series for the month, far in excess of the 239 Hino moved and the 149 truck tally for Fuso.
Behind the Japanese brands the Euro van based light duty cab chassis truck offerings followed with Iveco registering 68 to be fourth in the light sector, with 57 Mercedes Sprinter trucks placing it fifth, while Fiat with 46 Ducato cab chassis models, Renault with 33 Masters, Volkswagen with 10 Crafters and LDV with eight of its Deliver9 cab chassis models, putting it one ahead of Ford which sold seven Transit cab chassis to round out the top ten.
Hyundai with a bare six registrations of its Mighty ligh models seems to be missing out to the Euro brands and their conventional bonneted designs whiule Chinese electric brand Foton Mobility scored just five sales.
When it comes to TIC’s tally for alternate fuel and electric powered trucks, Hino claimed top spot with its 300 Series diesel hybrid selling 14 for the month to head the relatively new sector. Hino’s total places it at the top year-to-date for the sector as well with 150 Hybrids sold so far.
Behind it every other truck in the sector was pure battery electric with Volvo and Foton Mobility neck and neck, the Swedish maker selling nine of its heavy and medium BEVs, while, as mentioned Foton Mobility sold five of its electric machines. YTD the two brands are separated by just one unit with Volvo’s total on 43 and Foton on 42.
The only other brands to register in the sector were Fuso with two of its eCanters and Hyundai with a single electric Mighty.
Vans were also down significantly, with the sector off 13.4 per cent or 132 units on October last year.
A total of 855 over 3.5 tonne vans were sold for the month taking the sector YTD tally to 8,830 registrations, down 702 sales or 7.3 per cent on the first ten months in 2024.
Mercedes was best of the sector with 27.7 per cent share of the van market registering 237 of its Sprinter models, while its burgeoning Chinese rival LDV tallied 196 of its diesel powered Deliver9s.
Ford posted a spectacular 188 registrations for its heavy transit models lacing the Blue Oval way ahead of Renault with 88 van sales, Fiat with 68, Volkswagen with 56, Iveco with 25 and Peugeot with a single solitary one unit in vans for October.
With two months remaining industry pundits are bracing for a poor overall performance for the year but have fingers crossed for a lift in 2026
