Medium-Duty Sales Keep Climbing in July
Medium-duty truck sales in July rose 4.9% year-over-year, posting gains in all but the Class 6 sector.
In July, 17,050 trucks were sold in Classes 4-7, a 4.9% increase compared with 16,256 a year earlier, WardsAuto.com reported.
Year-to-date, sales rose 3.7% to 125,797 compared with 121,299 in the 2016 period, according to Ward’s.
Classes 4-5 combined posted the largest increase of 10.5%, as sales rose to 7,143 compared with 6,465 year-over-year. For the first seven months, they were up 8.8% to 54,619.
Asked whether e-commerce, with its need for final-mile delivery, was a key factor in the sales growth of the smaller commercial trucks, Steve Tam, vice president at ACT Research Co., told Transport Topics: “I am sure it isn’t hurting.”
Ford Motor Co. dominated Class 5 sales in both periods, with a market share above 50% in each case.
In July, Ford sold 3,392 Class 5 trucks out a total of 5,899 — the highest volume in July of all medium-duty classes.
Year-to-date, Ford sold 27,398 out of a total of 44,492.
“The Super Duty [series], which includes F-550, is an all-new product for us and has been having a great deal of sales success with both commercial and government customers,” Ford spokesman Erich Merkle told TT.
Class 7 posted the second-highest year-over-year gain in July, rising 4.6% to 5,501.
International Truck claimed the top spot with sales of 2,154, edging out Freightliner, which sold 2,123.
International is a brand of Navistar International Corp., and Freightliner is a brand of Daimler Trucks North America.
Truck maker Paccar Inc. was third in Class 7 sales as its brands, Kenworth Truck Co. and Peterbilt Motors Co., combined for 904 sales. Year-to-date, Class 7 slipped 1.3% to 33,244.
Freightliner led in the seven-month period with 16,220; International sold 9,255; Paccar sold 5,603.
In related Class 7 news, truck body builder Mickey Truck Bodies and alternative fuel system provider Roush CleanTech developed a propane-powered 2017 Ford F-750 side-load beverage truck with electric doors. It will debut at the BevOps Fleet Summit Sept. 19-22 in Phoenix. The propane-powered 6.8-liter engine emits less than 0.05 gram of nitrogen oxides per brake horsepower-hour, the companies said in a joint statement.
Class 6 sales dipped 2.8% to 4,406 in July.
Freightliner led with 1,446 Class 6 trucks sold, followed closely by Ford, which sold 1,299. International was third with 908.
Year-to-date, Class 6 sales rose 1.4% to 37,934, compared with the 2016 period.
