After a small dip in sales numbers last month the figures have quickly bounced back and look set to break more records later in the year.
The April truck sales in Australia are in and the numbers suggest the local market is still on track to break more records in 2023.
The Heavy-Duty Truck segment recorded its best April result ever last month with 1,295 vehicles delivered, up 25 per cent or 259 trucks, over April 2022.
Heavy Trucks and Light Trucks were the dominant sales drivers in the most recent April sales results released by the Truck Industry Council.
There were 1,277 Light Trucks delivered, up just over three per cent on April 2022 – a new Light Truck record.
Truck Industry Council CEO Tony McMullan says the April results are good news, particularly in light of the already impressive year to date results for the market.
“It is encouraging to see another good result in April to follow the solid first quarter figures,” McMullan says.
“It is particularly encouraging to see Heavy and Light Duty Truck segment sales showing such continued strength.
“We are currently sitting on record sales growth and that is a strong position to be in as we head towards the end of the financial year.”
Across all categories, including heavy vans, 3,613 vehicles were delivered in April. This was down approximately 560 units on the previous month of March 2023, however up 307 vehicles, 9.3 percent, over April last year.
Year-to-date, 14,071 heavy vehicles had been delivered to the end of April, 1,948 vehicles more than were sold year-to-date April 2022 (up 16.1 per cent).
Heavy Duty
Just 15 trucks is all that stands between Kenworth and Volvo in the race to be Australia’s top selling brand in heavy trucks.
Volvo won the battle in April, selling 249 trucks to Kenworth’s 231, and year to date Volvo is on 994 deliveries to Kenworth’s 979.
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The top two are more than 270 sales ahead of Isuzu which is pushing hard into the heavy vehicle segment, delivering 192 trucks in April and 707 for the year so far.
Rounding out the April results were Scania (96), Mack (87), Mercedes-Benz (77), Hino (73), Fuso (73), UD Trucks (72), DAF (63), Freightliner (26), MAN (20), Iveco (20) and Western Star (16).
Medium Duty
The Medium Duty Truck segment is tracking at about the same level as last year and April saw that trend continue. In April 609 Medium truck sales were recorded, that represents a 0.3 per cent decrease (-2 units) over April 2022. The April result keeps the year-to-date 2023 Medium segment sales at 2022 levels to the same point, end of April, down 1.3 per cent, or just 26 less Medium truck sales thus far in 2023.
Isuzu was the biggest seller in April with 304 deliveries, followed by Hino (150), Fuso (118), UD Trucks (16), Mercedes-Benz (6), Hyundai (5), Iveco (4), SEA Electric (4) and DAF and MAN with one sale each.
Light Duty
An extra 38 vehicles sold in April 2023 when compared to April 2022 results set a new record for this sector of the market. Year to date there have been 5,199 “little” trucks delivered in Australia, 715 more trucks than the same period in 2022.
Leading the brand battle is Isuzu with 536 sales in April and 2,471 sales for the year so far.
These results put the Japanese brand well ahead of its competitors in the segment.
In year-to-date terms the leaderboard starts with Isuzu (2,471), and rolls down to Hino (917), Fuso (888), Iveco (408), Fiat (195), Mercedes-Benz (152), Hyundai (66), Renault (57), Volkswagen (40) and Ford (5).