Market Insight: 13K Isuzu truck sales ‘new normal'

ISUZU Australia Limited (IAL) has declared 13,000 annual truck sales the brand’s “new normal” as it launches its most significant product update in nearly two decades with the local public debut of its new-generation truck range at last week’s Brisbane Truck Show.

Speaking on the eve of Brisbane Truck Show, IAL managing director and CEO Takeo Shindo told media that the company's recent performance represented a lasting shift in its market expectations.

Mr Shindo pointed out that IAL had averaged around 8000 units annually between 2007 and 2020 before, in 2021, climbing above 10,000 for only the second in the brand’s history as the pandemic-led logistics boom took hold then settling higher than ever as supply chains caught up – enabling annual sales comfortably in the 13,000s during 2022 and 2023, then again in 2024.

“Everybody expected our market to go down (in 2024) because the boom is over, finished, but still we kept going and (sold) 13,402 units – the second-best of our history – and we’re going to keep this going with new models,” said Mr Shindo.

IAL director and chief of sales and aftersales Ben Lasry added that Isuzu had already increased its commanding market position so far in 2025, despite a slight sales volume dip of 2.9 per cent to the end of April compared with the same time last year.

“We managed to bring home our second-strongest market share on record in 2024 and our second-strongest total volume at 13,402 units for the year,” said Mr Lasry.

"Now, in the early stages of 2025, we've lifted even further, and market share at the end of April has lifted another 2.2 per cent to 29 per cent total market share – that really is rare air and sets the tone as we move into this exciting new product lifecycle."

Without publicly predicting sales volumes, Mr Lasry said IAL is expecting further market share increases this year.

“We’ve still got to deliver a lot of our current models, and with the arrival of new models on top of that, we're forecasting a slight increase in market share for 2025,” he predicted.

The company’s 36 consecutive years of truck market dominance in Australia show no sign of waning, particularly evident in the medium-duty segment, where Isuzu holds a 49.1 per cent market share year-to-date, compared to Hino's 33 per cent and Fuso's 11.7 per cent.

In the light-duty segment (3501-8000kg GVM) also populated by numerous vans, Isuzu’s share is 28 per cent compared with 8.2 per cent for Fuso and 4.1 per cent for Hino, while it also claims 17.8 per cent of a hard-fought heavy-duty market behind Kenworth (23.1 per cent) and ahead of Volvo (16.7 per cent).

This year’s Brisbane Truck Show served as the launch platform for Isuzu's from-the-ground-up model year 2025 range, representing what company executives described as "the greatest Isuzu product range change in history, certainly for Australia".

IAL chief operating officer Andrew Harbison described the range-wide overhaul as “the biggest model change that we have done in nearly 20 years”.

“We truly believe that this is one of the biggest changes in the trucking industry that we've seen. We truly believe that we are redefining trucking here in Australia with the level of safety and the level of feature set that we bring into the market.”

The comprehensive product overhaul coincides with the timing of three significant Australian Design Rule (ADR) changes coming into effect in 2025, including mandatory electronic stability control, advanced emergency braking systems, and new emission standards equivalent to Euro 6.

IAL chief of product Matt Sakhaie said the timing could not be better, with the all-new range bringing cleaner and more powerful engines with improved torque characteristics and "an absolutely outstanding safety suite".

The MY25 range expands Isuzu's offering with the return of the narrow-cab NKR model that will span 125 separate specifications, amounting to 179 models across the light, medium and heavy-duty segments.

Mr Lasry and Mr Shindo both indicated the company expects to continue its market leadership for the foreseeable future, the latter revealing an ambition to reach 50 years and joking that 100 years at the top was possible.

Despite the positive outlook, Mr Lasry noted that broader economic conditions remained challenging.

"Election results aside, we're looking at some broader economic forces at play, and it's great that we're currently in a period of albeit modest growth, with the December quarter GDP rising 0.6 per cent that follows a 1.3 per cent increase since December 2023,” he told media.

“Whilst growth is cautiously positive, it's at a slower rate than in the past but in other key measures, inflation has begun to ease significantly, and we do expect to see some lessening of pressure on household spending and businesses.”

Alongside its new range – and aided by the return of the NKR – IAL will continue to target conquest sales to ute customers, which Mr Harbison said offered significant potential for growth.

“That car driver's licence market makes up about 25 per cent of our total sales, and clearly we see a massive opportunity in moving people from those lifestyle type vehicles into a true light truck that gives them the flexibility of being able to carry the type of payloads that they're looking for,” he said.

“The maths we did some time ago was that if we could capture about one per cent of that (market) it would add about 2000 sales annually to us. So we certainly are targeting that.”