Truck sales: Winners and losers for 2022

Certainly, 2022 proved to be a record year for trucks sales in Australia and there were definitely some big winners in sales. However, there were also some losers.

This might seem strange in such a buoyant year, but as we all know, there were supply chain issues in more ways than one. Not the least of which was shipping with one OEM telling trucksales.com.au last year when asked about supply: “Yes, I’ve got plenty of trucks – it’s just that they’re not here!”

Market leader Isuzu weathered the storm well with some gutsy early buy-ups, while Volvo Trucks found a clever way around the shipping crisis by hiring their own ship.

Others didn’t fare so well, and sales suffered. So, lets look at the top few examples in each category, with their sales compared to the previous year.

Overall, in 2022 there was and impressive 14,966 heavy-duty trucks sold in Australia. This is a 15% increase over 2021 where 12,999 HD trucks were sold.

For the calendar year of 2022, Kenworth was again the number-one selling heavy-duty truck with 3002 sales. This compares favourably with 2021 when the company sold 2838 trucks, an increase of 5.8%.

Second came arch-rival Volvo with 2539 sales, and very impressive 50.1% increase over 2021 where the company sold 1683 trucks. This was no doubt helped by their shipping solution where they could not only produce CKD trucks at the Wacol facility in Queensland but could also bring in fully built-up trucks from other plants – cleverly in Australian spec.

How Isuzu came in third in heavy-duty sales when they no longer have a dedicated ‘heavy’ truck in the range is amazing, but they finished with 2059 sales for 2022 compared with 1515 for 2021, an increase of 35.9%.

Worth a mention was UD; the company chipped in with 1063 heavy-duty sales, as opposed to 611 in 2021, an increase of 74%.

Others didn’t fare so well with Freightliner, Mercedes-Benz and Western Star all recording sales in the red. Scania, DAF and Mack were pretty much line-ball with last year.

In the medium duty market, there were a total of 7850 trucks sold in 2022 as opposed to 7390 in 2021, an increase of 6.2%.

The Isuzu juggernaut continued here with 3641 units sold compared to 3067 in 2021, an increase of nearly 19%.

Second-highest in medium duty trucks was Hino with 2295 sales which was a decrease of 1.16% over 2021 where sales were 2322 units.

Similarly, Fuso recorded a decrease with 1318 sales for 2022 compared to 1451 in 2021.

Light duty sales were also a mixed bag with Isuzu well on top with 7660 sales for the year compared to 5593 trucks for 2021, an increase of a staggering 37%.

Fuso would have been popping the bubbly bottles at the end of the year with 2901 trucks sold, beating rivals Hino out of second place. Fuso had an increase of 4.6% over 2021 where they clocked up 2744 sales.

Hino didn’t fare so well with the problems the company had throughout the year. However, they still managed to register 2822 sales of light trucks for the year, which was a 18.5% decrease from 2021 where they managed 3346 light-duty sales.

Overall, vans were a bit of a disaster in terms of sales for 2022 with just 5519 sold in the year. This compares poorly to 2021 where 6661 vans hit the road – it represents a decrease of 17%.

Once again Mercedes-Benz were on top of the sales heap with 2173, but this is a drop of 15% over 2021 where 2560 were sold.

Renault came in second with 1246 which was an increase of 16% over the 1040 sold in 2021.

Volkswagen was next with 877, an 11.8% drop over the previous year where the German company sold 996 vans.

Ford also performed poorly with just 333 vans sold compared to 1086 in 2021.

Overall, it was a big year for sales and all eyes are on 2023 to see which way the market goes, and whether we can get some relief from the impediments placed before all sectors of the truck market last year.