Commercial vehicle sales in doldrums for half a decade

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Australasian Transport News (ATN) / January 6, 2015

Commercial vehicles have failed for the second year in a row to push sales much into the 30,000 band.

Two years after breaking out of the 20,000s, progress beyond 2012’s 30,745 has proved elusive, Truck Industry Council (TIC) figures show.

The total for 2014 including vans was 30,630, 15 units down from 2013.

Individually, with a couple of notable exceptions either way, growth has been pretty flat for the makes.

With the exception of Western Star, the biggest swings were displayed amongst van-makers, where Ford has lost half its sales in five years to hit 512.

The biggest winner here has been Renault, up from 127 in 2010 to 960 last year and second place, while market leader Mercedes-Benz has seen relentless growth in the past three years take it into the 2,000s to end the year at 2,190.

Amongst the heavy-duty performers, Western Star’s light has dimmed somewhat, recording 658 sales compared with 1,003 in 2012.

Against that, Isuzu reached four figures in the sector for the first time this decade last year with 1,116.

That year also was the high-water mark for Iveco, which slumped from 926 to 698 in the same period.

The paragon of steady growth was Scania, which has lifted heavy truck sales by an average of around 100 units a year to finish last year on 779.

Possibly the most volatile numbers belong to Cat, which has recorded sales of 162, 310, 115 and 185 since debuting in 2011.