U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks totaled 33,505 units in August, 14.2% below year ago, according to WardsAuto data. In Canada, big-truck sales fell in August, as combined medium- and heavy-duty deliveries dropped 8.7% from year-ago.
U.S. Class 8 trucks took the hardest hit, falling 26.1% to 16,262 deliveries, Wards reports. All brands showed double-digit declines except small-volume Western Star, which slipped 4.9%. PACCAR’s Kenworth and Peterbilt posted year-over-year drops of 30.1% and 25.6%, respectively. Sales of Volvo trucks plummeted 32.2%, and its sister brand, Mack, lost 26.8%. Year-to-date, this weight class came in 20.2% behind like-2015.
Following two months of poor results, medium-duty trucks surpassed year-ago by 1.0% in August, boosted by sales in Classes 6 and 7.
Canada’s Class 8 sales declined 14.4% to 1,810 units, WardsAuto reports. The January-August tally came to 15,124 deliveries, 22.5% behind like-2015. Daimler was the only company to outsell last year, with a 0.5% downtick from Freightliner outweighed by a 28.8% gain by Western Star. International dropped 46.9%. PACCAR’s Kenworth and Peterbilt were down 9.7% and 15.1%, respectively. Mack (-14.6%) and Volvo (-22.3%) brought their parent company down 19.9%.
Medium-duty trucks came in 4.1% above prior-year with 971 units. The August figure brought the year-to-date total to 9,245, 3.1% less than like-2015.
Class 7 saw strong growth, rising 31.2% to 446 orders. Group leader International posted a 102.3% gain to 263 units. Freightliner slipped 11.0% and Hino lost 4.1% of sales.
