The first five months of 2024 kicked off with strong month-to-month sales, trumping record 2023 results, but by June sales began to slow – however total heavy vehicle sales are still up year-on-year…for now.
Since June all segments have slowed and in August this trend continued, indicating the sales dip is likely to run into the fourth quarter – all but ruling out another record year for the heavy vehicle market.
The Truck Industry Council (TIC) has made it clear that it included two new van brands (which includes LDV Deliver 9 and Peugeot Boxer) in July this year and has now captured all sales from January in the T-Mark results.
This has added 2,110 additional sales in 2024 for brands that were not captured in T-Mark reports last year. The vast majority of these vehicles (2,017 units) are vans, with a further 93 being light-duty trucks.
In August a total of 4,114 new trucks and vans above 3.5t GVM were sold, up 4.9 percent on 2023 numbers. If we exclude the LDV and Peugeot sales, 3,865 sales were recorded which is actually a -1.5 percent decline on 2023 numbers. So, the month of August 2024 is effectively down on the same month last year.
Year-to-date sales are sitting at 33,709 units and that represents a total sales increase of 7.0 percent compared to the same period last year. Again, comparing the total market without LDV and Peugeot sales, which makes up 31,599 heavy vehicles in 2024, versus 31,498 in 2023, the numbers equate to a 0.3 percent increase over last year’s sales.
Heavy-duty truck sales continue to slow and in August a total of 1,308 units were delivered, down 7.8 percent, or 111 trucks, on August last year. Year-to-date the result is looking a little better with heavy-duty sales tracking 0.6 percent higher than they were for the same period last year. In terms of actual truck numbers, the sales gap is 72 trucks year-to-date, made up by a record-breaking quarter one result.
Medium-duty truck sales have mirrored those of the heavy-duty segment in 2024 and that trend continued in August. The Australian medium-duty market ended the month of August with 657 sales, down 5.2 percent (-36 units) on August last year. Consistent sales for much of the first half of 2024 have seen the Medium Duty segment stay ahead of 2023 numbers and year-to-date the medium market is up 1.7 per cent, with an additional 89 trucks sold to the end of August 2024.
The Light Duty truck segment has slowed considerably with 1,190 Light Duty trucks delivered last month, down 6.5 percent on August last year. Year-to-date light-duty truck sales tell a similar story, with a 14.5 percent dip, or 1,614 fewer trucks sold compared to the same period in 2023.
By contrast, the light-duty van segment continues to grow. If we start by looking at the light-duty van segment without the LDV and Peugeot numbers, a total of 725 vans were sold in August, up 34.8 percent, or 187 units over the same month last year. Year-to-date the tally looks even better for the van segment, with a total of 5,548 van sales, up 42.2 percent over 2023 numbers – excluding LDV and Peugeot.
If we now consider the van segment in 2024 with those two brands included, year-to-date the van sales tally stands at 7,565, versus 3,901 at the end of August 2023. That is an increase of 3,664 vans, which represents an astonishing 93.4 percent improvement on the sales result to the end of August last year.
“The inclusion of the LDV and Peugeot brands in T-Mark at last, is great news, however it can be seen from the results above, it does complicate comparisons of 2024 versus 2023 sales,” said TIC CEO, Tony McMullan.
“Looking at the numbers holistically, heavy vehicle sales this year are tracking comfortably above those of 2023. However, in reality sales are only level-pegging those of last year.
“Heavy and medium truck sales remain solid, however light-duty truck sales continue to slow noticeably over 2023 results.
“While Van sales are well up even without counting the LDV and Peugeot numbers – once these are added in, Van sales are at stratospheric levels in 2024.”
