News, Trucks

AUSTRALIAN truck sales set another record in 2024, surpassing the 50,000-unit mark for the first time. The new record came six years after clearing its previous high of 40,000 sales.

The boss of the Truck industry Council (TIC) – the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia – Tony McMullan said it was “pleasing” to see a new annual new truck and van sales record that exceeded the 50,000 mark for the first time ever.

“The 40,000 barrier was only broken relatively recently in 2018 and despite the protracted global COVID supply chain disruptions, heavy vehicle sales in Australia continue to set new records,” he said. 

“The 2024 result of 51,277 sales has surpassed industry expectations, particularly given the economic headwinds.”

He said that while these record sales numbers in 2024 were set with the inclusion of a couple of van brands who had not previously shared their sales data with TIC, 2024 was a record year for heavy vehicle sales even if these brands were not included, with a tally of 48,267 bettering the previous record of 47,757 vehicles set in 2023.

“However, despite these record new truck sales, the TIC and our members remain concerned that the average age of the Australian truck fleet remains much older than that of Europe and North America,” he said.

“An old truck fleet is not conducive to improved safety, public health and environmental outcomes for our society. 

“Moving into an election year in 2025, we must consider what more can be done by both industry, and particularly the government, to reduce the age of our nation’s truck fleet.”

In its data released this week, the TIC said that the 2024 truck and heavy van sales for the calendar year totalled 51,277 units, up a significant 3520 units, or 7.4 per cent, over last year.

This is the third straight year that a new sales record has been set for heavy vehicle sales in Australia. 

In 2022, a total of 44,379 trucks and heavy vans were sold, beating the then previous all-time sales year of 2018. Then in 2023 a new mark was set when 47,757 heavy vehicles were delivered in the 12-month calendar year. Now that 2023 record has been exceeded in 2024.

The TIC said that part of this 2024 market growth comes from the entry into the data of two new truck and van brands, the LDV Deliver 9 and Peugeot Boxer.

“While these two brands have been selling commercial vehicles above 3.5-tonne GVM in Australia for a few years now, prior to 2024 they chose not to share their sales data,” the council said.

“TIC has captured all sales from January 2024 in the T-Mark sales results for these two brands and this has added 3010 additional sales in 2024 for brands that were not captured in T-Mark in 2023. 

“The vast majority of these vehicles, 2872 are Vans, with a further 138 being Light Duty trucks.

Tony McMullan

“While it is great to have these sales captured in T-Mark now, it does skew comparisons with 2023 sales, so in the Total Market and Van summaries the comparisons are made with and without these LDV and Peugeot brands to better compare 2024 versus 2023 sales.”

The 2024 truck and van market with the LDV and Peugeot sales excluded is a total of 48,267 heavy vehicles sold in 2024 – still a new all-time sales record eclipsing 2023 sales by 510 vehicles, a 1.1 per cent increase. 

“This is in reality a more accurate indication of new commercial vehicle sales in Australia in 2024,” the council said.

“That is, a slight increase over 2023 sales. Noting of course, this is a great achievement for the sector given the economic headwinds, cost of living pressures, no interest rate relief, GDP per capita falls, etc that have seen many sectors in the Australia economy recede in 2024.”

A closer look at the results for the fourth quarter 2024, shows sales of 13,023 vehicles. The TCI said this was a new quarter-four sales record, eclipsing the previous best fourth-quarter record set in 2023 when 12,305 heavy vehicles were delivered in October through to December. 

“Even with the LDV and Peugeot sales numbers removed (a revised total of 12,381 trucks and vans) it was a record fourth quarter (just, by 76 vehicles),” it said.

“Reviewing the overall numbers for the month of December 2024 in isolation, the total heavy vehicle market saw 4167 new truck and van sales. With the LDV and Peugeot numbers removed, December 2024 sales totalled 3980.”

The Heavy Duty Truck Segment had sales of 1381 units for the month of December 2024, well down over December 2023 by 371 fewer trucks, or a drop of 21.2 per cent.

In the fourth quarter of 2024 Heavy Duty truck sales reached a total of 4295, down 622 trucks, or off 12.6 per cent, over October to December 2023. 

Overall, 2024 saw a softening of Heavy Duty truck sales and the end of year total of 17,152 fell short of the 2023 Heavy sales total by 417 trucks, down 2.4 per cent. 

The TIC said Heavy Duty trucks continued to make up the largest slice of the Australian heavy truck and van market, accounting for 33.4 per cent of all heavy vehicles sold in 2024 and remaining comfortably ahead of the Light Duty truck segment which holds second place with a share of 28.4 per cent in 2024. 

The Medium Duty Truck Segment has seen slight growth over the year when compared to 2023, however December Medium truck sales weakened.

The December 2024 total was 706 units, representing 18 fewer Medium Duty sales over the same month in 2023. This was a decrease of 2.5 per cent for the month. The fourth quarter MD segment result of 2107 is also down on the final quarter 2023 result of 2131 units by 24 trucks, or down 1.1 per cent.

The council said this is well behind the final quarter record for Medium trucks, set way back in 2007 when 2812 MD trucks were delivered in the final three months.

It said this highlights the freight industry’s move away from Medium trucks into either smaller Light Duty trucks, or to larger Heavy trucks. 

The total tally of 8132 Medium truck sales in 2024, did however eclipsed that of 2023 by 1.6 per cent, or 128 trucks. 

And while up on 2023 and 2022 sales, the 2024 result is well below (down 18.0 per cent) the segment peak of 2007 when 9923 Medium Duty trucks were delivered. 

The TIC said that again, this highlighted that these trucks are less favoured by transport operators. 

In 2024 Medium Duty truck sales accounted for just 15.9 per cent of new heavy vehicles sold in Australia, almost half of the MD segment’s peak of 30.9 per cent set in 2001.

The Light Duty Truck Segment saw slowing sales in 2024, coming off record sales in 2022 and near record sales in 2023. The year-long trend in the Light Duty truck segment was softer sales as mentioned above, with a total of 14,558 Light Duty trucks delivered last year, a fall of 10.0 per cent, or down 1608 Light truck sales than in 2023. 

The TIC said that in the month of December 2024, sales of new Light Duty trucks were only 1163 units, down 2.0 per cent (or 24 units) compared with December 2023.

The fourth quarter of 2024 had a total of 3731 LD truck sales, also slightly down on the quarter four 2023 result by 0.5 per cent or 18 trucks. For the year, LD trucks represented 28.4 per cent of all heavy vehicle sales in 2024.

In the Light Duty Van segment, sales were particularly affected by the inclusion of LDV and Peugeot sales for the first time in 2024. 

These two brands, LDV (mainly) and Peugeot (slightly), accounted for 25.1 per cent of the increased sales in the Van segment in 2024. 

TIC said that the Van segment continued to rebound from the poor sales results seen during and immediately post COVID, primarily due to supply chain issues.

In 2024, a total of 11,435 Vans above 3.5-tonne GVM were sold in Australia. TIC said this was up “a stunning” 90.0 per cent (or 5417 vans) over the previous year’s result. 

“Now 25.1 per cent of this increase came from the inclusion of LDV and Peugeot sales for the first time, however, even excluding these brands the segment saw sales of 8563 in 2024,” the council said.

“That is up 42.3 per cent (or 2545 more van sales) than in 2023.”

December 2024 saw particularly strong van sales, with 926 vans delivered, well up on December 2023 sales by 106.7 per cent (478 vans). 

The 2024 fourth quarter result of 2890 new van sales was also up on the 2023 fourth quarter result of 1508, by 1382 vans, or 91.6 per cent. 

TIC said that the surge in van sales saw the Van segment make up 22.3 per cent of the total Australian new heavy-vehicle market in 2024, setting a new record for the segment and surpassing the previous record set at year end 2020 when the segment then peaked at 18.1 per cent share.

By Neil Dowling

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