Truck sales in Australia continued on a downward spiral in March with the sales volume totals down 11.1 per cent on the same month last year with all sectors reporting drips in sales as the added challenge of the USA Iran conflict also bringing pressure to bear on the market.
The total truck market in March tallied 3665 trucks and vans over 3.5 tonnes, down 460 units on March last year with the YTD total for the first quarter to the end of the month standing at 9132 units, a drop of 1225 units or 11.8 per cent on the first quarter in 2025.
The drops in sales were spread across virtually all brands and all sectors, with a couple of exceptions, particularly Hino which happened to register a 17.9 per cent rise over its result in Marck last year, registering 428 units in the month up 65 trucks.
Heavy duty dropped 123 units or nine per cent, medium duty was down 204 trucks or a whopping 32 per cent while light duty was not down as much as the other segments, dropping just 3.9 per cent or 46 units on March last year.
Isuzu maintained its longstanding iron grip on market leadership selling 781 trucks to lead the pack overall, albeit with a drop of 326 trucks on its March 2025 tally, which represents a 29 per cent slide.
Hino had a strong month despite the expected drops the maker forecast with the drop in medium duty and to a lesser extent light duty supply, off the back of its parent company’s past fuel consumption and emission fraud problems. Hino, as we mentioned was up 17.9 per cent on its March 2025 sales and despite its supply issues the former Toyota owned brand’s YTD performance was also ahead of the first quarter last year. In the first three months last year Hino retailed and 951 trucks but so far this year has shifted 989 units.
Fuso in third place dropped just 18 units on March laast year, selling 294 trucks last month a fall of only 5.7 per cent.
Behind the three leading Japanese brands the fight for Heavy Duty dominance came into play with Kenworth capturing fourth in the overall market as well as leading the heavy sector having sold 240 in the segment, 19 units more than arch rival Volvo. Kenwoth also added one medium duty truck to its tally while Volvo sold 20 in the mid range segment.
Despite worrying Volvo in many of the last 12 months, Isuzu was a firm third in heavy duty with 174 sales. This time last year the Japanese brand finished ahead of Volvo, as it has on several occasions in recent times.
In terms if the overall pecking order Iveco was sixth with 178 sales, mostly with its Daily light truck, its heavy duty sales numbered 46, a small rise on recent performance, while medium duty Ivecos tallied to 15.
Behind Iveco Mercedes was seventh with 115 total sales, Fiat was eighth with its Ducato light truck while Scania posted another impressive score of 99 all heavy sales to be ninth well ahead of DAF rounding out the top ten overall with 61 sales, all but two being heavies.
Isuzu as per usual ruled the roost in medium duty with 209 units sold, easily bettering Hino with 88 trucks in second and Fuso with 61 to be third in the category. Behind the top three Iveco was next best on 15, with Volvo on 10 and Hyundai with six medium duty sales.
Mercedes shifted a meagre three mediums, ahead of MAN, UD and MAN all with two units each and one each for Foton Mobility with a single electric medium and one also for its internal combustion corporate stablemate Foton, which is distributed by a different company in Australia.
In light duty Isuzu led the field with 379 sales in the sector, well down on the 579 light duty models in sold in March last year. That drop of 200 sales represents a 34.2 per cent drop. Still it was enough to comprehensively outpoint Hino with 265 sales and Fuso with 170 Canters.
Hino had a shocker in March last year selling just 75 light duties but its bounce back this year represents a massive 253 per cent increase on its 2025 result.
Iveco was next best in the light duty fight with 117 sales, just ahead of former Agnelli stablemate Fiat with 114, while Mercedes was next with Sprinter based light trucks and Foton Mobility registering a strong 25 battery electric machines which are being snapped up by the likes of Woolworths for home delivery operations, with the current fuel crisis clearly having an affect.
Hyundai pushed out it usual effort selling 13 light duty models, while LDV sold 10 and Renault just two.
In the van sector Chinese brand LDV again bettered long time market leader Mercedes-Benz selling 233 of its Deliver 9 heavy vans to the 207 Mercedes-Benz Sprinters.
Overall the van sector sold 875 units in March a drop of 962 on the March 25 tally, a nine per cent fall.
Behind Mercedes came Renault with 12 8 vans, Ford with 105 and Fiat with 101, leaving VW with 65 to fight it out at the bottom of the category with Iveco on 31 and Peugeot with just three vans.
All of the numbers don’t make great reading or contribute to any short term optimism with some makers seeming to be a bit spooked by the spectre of the fuel crisis. Perhaps the only long term winners will be electric and hybrid models.
