According to the latest sales figures, truck and van sales remain slow as we pass through the third-quarter mark of 2025 – compared to record sales in 2024.
Despite slowing sales though, it’s not all doom and gloom.
Chief Executive Officer of TIC, the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia, Tony McMullan, said, “While 2025 has seen a noticeable downturn in new truck and van sales, with just three months to go until year end, the industry is still on track for its third best sales year here in Australia.”
Heavy-duty truck segment
The latest Truck Industry Council (TIC) T-Mark sales figures for September 2025 show that the heavy-duty truck segment continued to perform poorly in quarter three – being the hardest hit in the 2025 sales downturn.
Looking at the third quarter sales in isolation, the segment was down by 668 trucks compared to quarter three 2024. That is a 16.3 percent decline over heavy truck sales for the same three-month period last year.
For the month of September, the news was worse, with sales down over September 2024 by 20.2 percent (-309 trucks). The total heavy-duty trucks delivered for September was 1221. Kenworth topped that list with 316 vehicles sold, Volvo came in second place with 197 vehicles sold and in third spot was Isuzu with 163 trucks.
Across the year-to-date the picture is slightly better, with the segment down 17.8 per cent when compared to the first nine months of 2024. A total of 10,563 heavy-duty trucks have been sold in Australia to the end of September this year. Kenworth has earned itself a solid lead, with 2497 heavies sold in this period. Volvo sits in second place with 1709 and Isuzu and in third with 1687 heavy-duty trucks sold in the first nine months of the year.
As McMullan explained, “The new heavy vehicle sales market was down 6.9 percent at the end of quarter one, dropping further to be down by 12.1 percent at the end of quarter two. Hence the slight improvement that we saw in the market year-to-date at the end of quarter three, down 11.8 percent, suggests that sales have steadied.
“Hopefully quarter two was the low point and that we will now witness stabilised, or increasing, sales for the last part of 2025 and into 2026.”
Medium-duty truck segment
The medium-duty segment also took quite a hit in September, down 28.4 percent when compared with September 2024. That was 201 less medium-duty trucks sold for the month.
The quarter three result was also poor for the medium sector, with just 1578 medium trucks delivered from July to September 2025, down 20.6 percent (-410 trucks) on the same three-month period in 2024. The year-to-date picture looks somewhat better for the medium-duty segment with sales standing at 5276. This is down 12.4 per cent on the 2024 year-to-date result, a shortfall of 749 medium trucks when compared to sales for the first nine months of 2024.
For the month of September alone, medium-duty truck sales stand at 508. Leading the charge in this sector is Isuzu with 254 vehicles sold for the month, followed by Hino with 138 and then Fuso with 89.
Light-duty truck segment
In the light-duty space – consisting of vehicles from 3500 kg to 8000 kg GVM – sales have been more resilient than in the larger truck segments. That’s been reflected again in quarter three 2025 sales, with 3691 light-duty trucks sold in the July to September period. It’s the second best third quarter result for the segment, behind the record 2022 quarter sales result of 4288 light trucks. This 2025 third quarter result was up 1.0 percent (27 trucks) over the same period last year. The month of September did not fair quite as well, down 3.3 percent (-44 trucks) over September 2024. While year-to-date the light-duty truck segment is not fairing quite as well, primarily due to slow first half year sales. A total of 9913 light-duty trucks have been sold to the end of September, down 8.4 percent over the same nine month period in 2024 (-914 trucks).
Unsurprisingly, perennial marker leader Isuzu continues to top this space, with 660 trucks sold in September and 5205 for the year to date providing a very solid lead. That’s compared to Hino, with 239 vehicles sold in September and 1133 for the year date; and Fuso with 134 light-duty sales in September and 1353 year to date.
