Despite supply chain issues that impacted many of the manufacturers throughout 2022, the year ended on a high note when it came to the final truck sales tally.
Figures released earlier this month by the Truck Industry Council (TIC) reveal a new record for yearly heavy vehicle sales in Australia; with truck and heavy van sales totalling 44,379 units. That’s an increase of 2975 units, or 7.2 per cent over the previous year.
The final tally was a new record for heavy vehicle sales in Australia, eclipsing the 41,628 new truck sales mark set in 2018, by 2751 vehicles, or approximately 6.2 per cent.
A sizeable chunk of those sales came from truck market sales leader Isuzu, which sold a whopping 13,360 units in 2022 – more than double that of second-place getter Hino, which sold 5867 units, followed closely by Fuso with 5021 units.
While a new overall market record was set last year, it was not the only record set in 2022, with a number of other records broken too. Quarters two and four were the strongest, however some new records were set in quarters one and three, highlighting the strength of the market throughout 2022. By the year’s end, new sales records were set in both the heavy and light truck segments.
Taking a closer look at the results for the fourth quarter in 2022, 12,144 vehicles were sold – a new quarter four sales record, eclipsing the previous best fourth quarter record set in 2007 (just prior to the Global Financial Crisis) when 11,013 heavy vehicles were delivered in October through to December.
Kenworth once again finished at the top of the pack for the year in the heavy-duty segment, recording 3002 trucks sold for 2022, up from 2838 in 2021. Volvo Trucks came in second, with 2539 trucks sold for the year in this segment. Though Volvo recorded high sales than Kenworth for the month of December, with the brands selling 326 and 281 units respectively. And despite no longer have a dedicated heavy truck in its range, Isuzu cemented third place, selling 2059 units.
It was also a record quarter for both heavy and light truck sales in Australia. Reviewing the overall numbers for the month of December 2022 in isolation, the total heavy vehicle market of 4112 units, was up a healthy 584 vehicles (16.6 per cent) on the 3528 trucks sold in December 2021. This result was a new December sales record.
The heavy-duty truck segment recorded 1481 sales in December 2022, up by 215 units, or 17 per cent, over December 2021.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, heavy-duty truck sales reached a total of 4379, up 484 trucks, or 12.4 percent, over October to December 2021.
Overall, 2022 saw much healthier heavy truck sales and the end of year total of 14,966 was a new record for the segment surpassing the 2018 peak of 14,344 by 622, or 15.1 per cent. Heavy-duty trucks account for 33.7 per cent of all heavy vehicles sold in 2022, trailing the light-duty truck segment for the third year in a row.
The medium-duty segment saw modest growth over the year, though December saw sales slow, with just 688 units sold for the month. The fourth quarter medium duty segment result of 1954 was also down on the final quarter 2021 result of 2030 units.
In 2022 medium duty truck sales accounted for just 17.7 percent of new heavy vehicles sold in Australia, almost half of the 2001 peak of 30.9 per cent.
Isuzu led the pack in the medium-duty segment with 3641 units sold in 2022, followed by Hino with 2295 units, and then Fuso with 1318 units.
In the light-duty truck segment, there was a new sales record in 2022 and the month of December also delivered record sales with 1393 deliveries for the month, up by 190 trucks over December 2021. The fourth quarter total of 4239 unit sales, was up on quarter four 2021 by 437 units and is a new fourth quarter record.
The yearlong sales trend in the light-duty truck segment was also strong, with a total of 16,044 units sold. The light-duty truck segment accounted for at 36.2 per cent of all heavy vehicle sales in 2022, comfortably making this segment the largest.
Unsurprisingly, Isuzu topped the annual sales chart in the light-duty space for 2022, selling an impressive 7660 trucks in the segment. In second place was Fuso with 2901 trucks sold and then Hino, with 2822 light-duty truck sales.