Kenworth is back in front in the intriguing 2023 tussle for heavy-duty truck sales supremacy, but it’s still anybody’s race.
In the latest numbers just released by the Truck Industry Council (TIC), 304 Kenworths were delivered in September – up from 284 in August – to put the Bayswater-based manufacturer just 26 clear of Volvo with a year-to-date (YTD) total of 2565.
Volvo slid back to second with 262 deliveries in September – down from 302 in August – but is nipping at Kenworth’s heels on 2538 YTD.
Overall market leader Isuzu consolidated its third spot among the heavies with another solid month, recording 186 for September – 18 more than it did in August – and is now on 1734 YTD.
In a bumper September across the board, fourth-place Scania also had another big month with 131 deliveries, 15 more than it did in August.
Of the others, Mercedes-Benz had a similar spike, up 16 on the previous month (106 vs. 90) and is now in a three-way tussle for fifth-place honours with Mack and UD Trucks.
In total, 1396 heavy trucks were delivered over the month, a new September sales record, eclipsing the previous best September result of 1279 set last year.
According to TIC, the third quarter of the year has seen overall truck and van sales soften when compared to quarters one and two.
However, the market is still on track to break the all-time sales record set last year. Overall, the third quarter result for 2023, which saw 11,057 truck and van sales, was the second strongest quarter three result, falling short of the best ever third quarter result, set last year, by 291 vehicle sales.
This saw the quarter down by 2.6 per cent over the same period in 2022. YTD the market is tracking up 10 per cent (+3217 vehicles) over the same period last year with a total of 35,452 heavy vehicles sold so far in 2023.
TIC said the heavy-duty truck segment continued to perform well in quarter three and is now ahead of 2022 results by 19.5 per cent (+2065 trucks) with a very healthy 12,652 heavies sold in Australia to the end of September.
Looking at the third quarter sales in isolation, the segment was up by 249 trucks over quarter three 2022. For the month of September, the news was not quite as good, with sales up over September 2022 by 9.2 per cent (+117 trucks).
TIC CEO Tony McMullan said it was a solid quarter for the heavy and medium truck segments, while sales in the light-duty and van sectors had slowed noticeably in the third quarter.
At the end of the third quarter 2023, total heavy vehicle sales are up over the same point in 2022, but not to the same degree as we saw at the end of June this year.
“I believe that the end of the instant asset write-off tax incentive, in June 2023 and interest rate rises, are now starting to negatively impact new truck sales,” McMullan said.
“However, with just three months to go until year end, the industry is still on track hit a new market peak, though this is mainly due to the stellar sales seen from January to June this year.”
