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The year started strong for Canadian big-truck makers as they hit 2,874 deliveries in January, a 25.6% increase and 11th consecutive month of year-over-year gains. This compared with 2,196 units achieved last year.
Class 8 rang in the new year with a 25.7% soar in sales to 1,803. International was the only truck maker to post a negative, down 15.2% to 219 units. Together Freightliner (+25.0%) and Western Star (+41.6%) accounted for 47.1% market share with 850 deliveries. PACCAR grew 44.5% and Volvo Truck 39.8%.
Canada medium-duty truck sales grew 25.5% to 1,071.
Freightliner’s 373.3% surge boosted overall Class 7 sales 97.8% to 474, and went from a 18.7% market share to 44.7%. The only drop in the group was Ford, down 42.4% but on low volume. Hino (+14.1%), International (+53.9%) and PACCAR (+45.9%) posted large gains.
The Class 6 spotlight was also on Freightliner, which climbed 233.9% from 23 to 80 deliveries in January, resulting in Class 6 sales jumping 46.2% to a total of 134 units. PACCAR increased 476.0% but on small volume.
The increase in Class 5 imports (+136.3%) was hardly enough to keep the class in the positive, as a 10.5% loss in domestics was on much larger volume, resulting in a mere 0.1% drop. Isuzu and Hino outperformed last year by 128.9% and 65.3%, respectively. FCA (-19.8%) and Ford (-26.6%) plunged in sales but still accounted for 58.3% of the market.
Class 4 performed the worst, plummeting 41.7% to 82 deliveries compared with 135 in like-2017 with double-digit losses from Ford, Hino and Isuzu.
