The Australian truck market has finished 2025 down around 6000 units and 11.8 per cent on its record high at the end of 2024.
Truck makers are not to perturbed about the steady decline across the past 12 months, citing it as a ‘normalisation’ year after several record years in a row, with a number of them believing the market is set to bounce back in 2027 on the back of fleets needing to replace ageing trucks that have been pushed hard during the boom times.
The market softening has also allowed truck makers to catch up and ‘normalise’ activity and to prepare for a more even market.
Despite that the 2025 result would have been a record annual sales volume just three years ago exceeding the 2022 tally by almost 3000 trucks.
Isuzu topped the annual tally as well as the December total giving the Japanese maker 37 straight years as the top selling brand in this market. Isuzu registered 12,420 trucks in 2025, and 861 vehicles in December to give it the crown once again. This was a 27 per cent drop on its December result last year and its annual total this year was down 982 units on its 2024 total which was a 7.3 per cent drop in sales.
Despite that Isuzu captured more than a quarter of all truck sales last year with a 27.5 per cent market share for the year and 23.1 per cent for December, again outdistancing nearest rivals Hino, which sold 457 trucks in December to give it an annual tally of 4711 vehicles and a 10.4 per cent share for the year.
Fuso came a close fought fight with heavyweight maker Kenworth to take third for the year with 3595 trucks registered in the 12 months to December, only 246 units ahead of the largely heavy duty segment Paccar brand which sold 3349 for the year.
Naturally that number gave Kenworth supremacy in the heavy duty market, with its total tally counting for all but two medium duty sales for the year, making its heavy duty sector sales 3347 for the year. This gave Kenworth 23.4 per cent of the heavy market finishing more than a 1000 trucks ahead of bitte4r rival Volvo which finished the year with 2326 heavy models. The Swedish brand finished just 114 trucks ahead of Isuzu in the battle for second in heavy duty.
Volvo finished in fifth place in the overall market with its 2357, almost 1000 units ahead of sixth placed Iveco which registered 1379 trucks in 2025.
Mercedes-Benz and Scania finished line ball with barely five trucks between them. Benz registered 1212 trucks, which included 793 heavy duty, 68 mediums and 351 light duty models, while its Swedish rival did all of its work in the heavy lifting sector with all 1207 of its sales in the top weight segment.
Fiat finished inside the top ten with 807 sales of its Ducato light duty cab chassis models, while Mack rounded out the top ten with 727 sales, all but one of them in heavy duty. DAF finished just 99 trucks behind Mack to be just outside the top ten for 2025.
Despite the fact that Scania’s sales performance was notable for what was a soft year its 1207 trucks was just over half the sales of both Volvo and Isuzu above it on the heavy duty segment totals.
Isuzu was number one in medium duty both in December and fir the year, having rolled out its new truck range and totally outsold the supply restricted rivals at Hino.
Isuzu sold 220 medium duty trucks in December to give it 49.4 share of the segment and an annual tally of 3267 for the entire year, which amounts to a 49 per cent share of the sector. Fuso was a distant third while a surprise fourth place, albeit a long way back went to Korean maker Hyundai with 109 medium duty sales for the year.
In light duty Isuzu continued to reign supreme, selling better than one in two trucks in the sector with a 50.1 per cent market share for the year having registered 6941 vehicles for the year and 462 trucks in December.
Hino was next best registering 264 trucks in December to give it a total for 2025 of 1906 light duty models, just two trucks clear of Fuso for the year, with the pair line ball with Hino taking 13.9 per cent market share and Fuso 13.88 per cent, let’s call it 13.9 per cent each given rounding differences.
Iveco was the next best in the light sector selling 880 of its Daily based light truck chassis for 6.4 per cent share, although it sold just 59 light duty model in December. It was outgunned by Fiat which sold 107 Ducatos for the month, although its fellow Italian brand finished fourth for the 2025 tally with 807 registrations.
Mercedes topped the heavy van sales market with 279 or its Sprinter models sold in December, giving it a 33.2 per cent share for the month and a total of 3284 registrations for 2025 and an overall market share of 31.2 per cent.
Chinese rival LDV continued its strong performances finishing second for the month and the year in vans, registering 191 vehicles in December and a total of 2316 for the year, giving it a 22 per cent market share overall.
Behind them came Renault with 93 sales in December, Ford with 80, Volkswagen with 67, Iveco just one behind on 66 and Fiat with 61 Ducatos, while Peugeot moved just three of its heavy vans giving it an annual tally of just 21.
With interest rates on hold and apparent business sentiment looking up it waits to be seen if 2026 holds sales growth in the commercial vehicle sector or more retraction.
