Hino flags hopes for upturn

The Chairman and CEO of Hino Australia, Steve Lotter, says he's cautiously confident of a recovery in the light- and medium-duty truck markets

Speaking at the recent launch of Hino's new High Horsepower 300 Series models, the 920 and 921, Hino Australia Chairman and CEO, Steve Lotter, said he was optimistic that a turnaround for the embattled light-duty and medium-duty truck markets in this country wasn't too far away.

"The [light- and medium-duty] truck market is literally bumping along the bottom – we'll call it the 'new normal'," he said.

"The segments where Hino Australia competes are still 30 per cent below pre-GFC levels. Within that market we've just got to make sure we've got the range available. The only way we can grow our volume now is to take it from the competition and that's what we’re trying to do – we're trying to flesh out our model range and ensure we've got the models available, while we're all anxiously waiting for the market to grow."

The launch of Hino's High Horsepower 300 Series models is part of that push. Available in three wheelbases in a single cab format and one wheelbase in a crew cab, and in both manual (the 920) or automatic (the 921), the release sees the ranks of the 300 Series swell by eight models.

Lotter says the newcomers will break new ground for Hino.

"These High Horsepower models put us into a segment where we've not been – a segment that accounts for about 800 trucks a year at the moment," says Lotter.

"We've been waiting for these models since we launched the 300 Series back in 2011. It would have been nice to have them back then but Hino doesn't do anything without making sure a product is fit for purpose and fit for market."

Lotter says he remains cautiously upbeat regarding the future.

"I think the replacement cycle has got to kick in," he says.

"We're already seeing that happen in class A – the 500hp and up market is booming – but in the light and medium and the lower end of heavy we're still waiting for that. We're now six years on from the GFC so it's got to kick in soon.

"Certainly with the recent Federal Budget and the spending on infrastructure and development I think the Government is really saying that road transport is the way it's going to be in this country, and that's good for us. Certainly building roads and airports and all of that has to be good for trucks generally. So we're reasonably confident about the medium-term future."

The High Horsepower models kick off a flurry of activity in Hino's range over the next few months, with a total of 18 new or revised models boosting the manufacturer's fleet to over 150 by the end of August.

The updates include an off-road-focussed 8x4 700 Series truck, an FE auto targeting street sweeper applications, two further 300 Series variants, several FC and FD models with ProShift (AMT, or automated manual) transmissions, and a GH XXL auto – in a 6200mm wheelbase that's great for 12-pallet applications.

"We're adding a lot of automatic and AMT options; I think the car market is almost entirely automatic these days and the truck market is very much going the same way," says Lotter.

"So we've got auto options an pretty much all of our light-duty trucks, we're adding AMT and auto options in our medium-duty and certainly heavy-duty seems to be going completely to AMT. That's our direction at the moment – where we don’t have a product at the moment you can be sure we'll be working as quickly as we can to address that where possible."

Hino flags hopes for upturn

Tags