The Australian truck market got off to its slowest start in almost five years as January sales dipped 11.7 percent on the same month in 2025, with 2464 trucks and vans registered, 322 units down on this time last year.
The slow start to 2026 continues on from the fading sales encountered last year and is a long way short of the boom years encountered from 2023 to 2025.
Market leader Isuzu was again the top seller sitt9ng atop the truck tally with 537 registrations, but even this was 228 shy of what the top brand sold last year on January, underlining just how much sales have dropped off.
Isuzu captured an overall share of the entire market of 21.8 per cent well clear of its nearest rival, in fact selling more than double that of number two Hino, which sold 257 trucks for the month to claim 10.4 per cent market share
Hino’s tally was only just ahead of fellow Japanese rival, and soon to be joint venture partner Fuso which was third with 243 trucks in January, just 17 trucks adrift of Hino, giving the Daimler owned brand a 9.9 per cent share of the market.
While the Japanese were battling each other at the top of the sales charts Kenworth posted a strong result with 196 trucks all of them heavy duty models,to put it fourth 47 trucks ahead of Swedish rival Volvo with 149 in fifth.
Behind them Mercedes-Benz was sixth with 84 sales putting it just ahead of the other Swede, Scania with 63 trucks for the month, while DAF with 49, Mack with 43 and Fiat with 31 rounded out the top ten.
Heavy Duty sales were also well down in January with a tally of 788 trucks, a 12 per cent or 110 unit drop in the sector compared with the same month last year.
As mentioned Kenworth led the race for heavy duty supremacy with its 149 for the month, while Volvo’s heavy duty total was two trucks short of its overall tally, with two if its sales being in the medium sector. Isuzu again posted a strong third placing registering 124 heavy duty models to finish close behind Volvo in the battle of the heavyweights.
Scania’s 63 trucks placed it fourth in heavy ahead of DAF on 44, with Fuso on 42 and Mack on 41. Mercedes with a meagre 34, UD with 24 and Hino with 23 rounded out the top ten in heavy duty.
Medium duty took a big hit in January dropping 38.1 per cent on the same month last year with overall sales of 292 trucks, down from 472 in medium sales in January last year.
Hyundai shifted 12 medium duty models to be ahead of Mercedes with eight units and MAN with three , while Volvo, Iveco and DAF all sold two mediums while UD moved just one truck.
The light duty sector dropped the least of all the segments in sales, selling a total of 703 trucks for the month, just 25 trucks short of what were moved in the sector in January last month, a drop of just 3.4 per cent.
Isuzu dominated the light duty market with 27.7 per cent of the segment equating to 265 units, well ahead of Hino in second with 183 registrations, while Fuso was in third with 183.
As per normal the other brands dropped off quickly with Mercedes Benz and its Sprinter based cab/chassis trucks taking fourth with 42 units, Fiat on 31 and Volkswagen on 13, while LDV sold 12 trucks, Iveco 10, with Hyundai sellin six light duty models, Renault two and Foton Mobility a single electric light duty truck.
The van segment held firm with a total of 681 van sales in January and was only seven units behind the result in the same month last year
In vans Mercedes-Benz had a strong month moving 233 Sprinter vans for 34.2 per cent of the segment, while LDV was second with 159 registrations of its Delivery9, with Renault third on 103 vans for the month. Behind the top three came VW with 63 Crafter vans, Ford with 48, Fiat with 41 and Iveco on 34.
With such a slow start to 2026 it waits to be seen if the commercial vehicle market can accelerate in the remaining 11 months of sales and most truck sellers have their fingers crossed that it will.
