If the first two months of the year are any guide, there will be plenty to celebrate at PACCAR’s Bayswater plant throughout 2021.
After its early 2020 sales race scare at the hands of Volvo, the perennial heavy duty sector leader is back in its all-too-familiar sector slot.
Exactly the place you want to be when this month marks the 50th anniversary of the first all Australian-made Kenworth rolling off the Melbourne assembly line.
The latest sales figures for February from the Truck Industry Council shows Kenworth sold 163 units, a healthy 26 more than the same month last year, and 54 rigs ahead of Volvo and Isuzu who tied for second with 109 sales apiece.
Mercedes was the biggest monthly force YoY in the sector, leaping from 34 to 84 to edge out Scania for fourth place.
Freightliner was perhaps the other notable mover, although in the other direction, sliding back from an impressive January tally to sell just 22 units.
Overall, heavy duty figures were up with total sales of 805 ‘heavies’ for the month, compared with 777 in the same period last year.
By the end of the month 4767 heavy commercial vehicles were sold in Australia, 476 more than February 2020, the last month before the impacts of Covid really hit home.
That means the year-to-date tally is only slightly behind the YTD sales for the all-time record set in 2018, proving the various stimulus packages and ready-finance on offer are having a huge impact.