Despite large double-digit gains in three out of the five classes, Canada’s medium- and heavy-duty truck sales continue to fall with February marking the industry’s 17th consecutive month of year-over-year drops, down 8.3% in February to 2,603 deliveries compared with like-2016’s 2,840.
February also marks Class 8’s 17th consecutive month of year-over-year drops, falling 21.1% to 1,466 units. Daimler’s Freightliner and Western Star both posted double-digit losses of 35.9% and 25.9%, respectively. PACCAR’s Kenworth (9.7%) and Peterbilt (52.2%) were among the few to increase in sales.
Medium-duty truck sales posted a 15.8% gain with only one class underperforming. Year-to-date sales totaled 1,950 deliveries, 10.7% ahead of 2016’s 1,762.
Class 7 dropped 14.2% to 332 units, the only segment in this sector to underperform in February. Freightliner, International and Kenworth posted losses of 40.0%, 27.8% and 5.4%, respectively. Hino stayed flat at 92 units, but saw a 3.9% drop to 23.8% market share. Ford nearly doubled its low-volume sales with a growth of 87.5%.
Class 6 sales climbed 46.9% over year-ago on volume of 141, with large gains from International (187.0%) and Hino (86.2%). Ford and Freightliner floundered, with 16.7% and 25.0% losses, respectively.
With a 54.7% increase from Ford on 314 deliveries, Class 5 rose 28.8% to 514 units in February. Isuzu (50.0%) and FCA (14.1%) also posted gains. International performed the worst in the group, dropping 83.3% on only one delivery.
Class 4 soared 50.0% to 150 units with a large increase of 56.5% in its domestic line. Ford led the way with a triple-digit rise in sales, up 108.2% to 127 units, gaining 23.7% market share to 84.7%. This balanced out the large losses from Hino (-40.0%) and Isuzu’s domestic line (-47.6%).
Through February, medium- and heavy-duty truck sales totaled 4,793 deliveries, down 7.3% from year-ago’s 5,169.
