For the second successive month Volvo has edged ahead of Kenworth in the heavy-duty sales table, and now sits just three units adrift of the perennial category leader in the year-to-date (YTD) tally.
Volvo recorded 305 sales for March with Kenworth in second on 300, with Kenworth now on 748 YTD and Volvo on 745, according to the latest numbers just released by the Truck Industry Council.
Isuzu was the next best in the heavy-duty category in March with 192 sales, followed by Scania with 93 and Mercedes-Benz and Mack tied for fifth place with 88 apiece.
The overall tally for the heavies in March was 1447 units delivered, up a healthy 16.2 per cent, or 202 trucks, on March 2022.
The first quarter result was even better, with 3615 heavy sales year-to-date, a new first quarter record for heavy truck sales.
The first three months of 2023 saw a bunch of new records set for truck sales.
Year-to-date a total of 10,458 trucks and heavy vans have been delivered in Australia, this is a substantial increase of 1641 units over this time last year, up 18.6 per cent.
It eclipses the previous all-time sales record set in quarter one last year where 8817 trucks and vans were sold in January through to March and it is the first time ever that quarter one heavy vehicle sales have broken through the 10,000 vehicle sales barrier.
“Sales in all heavy vehicle segments are ahead of those at this time last year and this is pleasing to witness,” said Tony McMullan, TIC CEO.
“However, as I cautioned last month, many sectors of our economy are cooling due to interest rate rises and with still no announcement from the federal treasury over extending the delivery timeline for the Temporary Full Expensing incentive, that is scheduled end on June 30, industry remains concerned that many truck orders will be cancelled because trucks will not be completed and delivered into service by the end of this financial year, due to ongoing global supply chain issues.
“Cancelled orders would no doubt lead to job losses across the industry.”