Classes 4-7 Sales in September Hit Ups and Downs
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U.S. retail sales for Classes 4 through Class 7 vehicles in September failed to clear 19,000, falling 5.6% compared with a year earlier, Wards Intelligence reported.
Sales totaled 18,763 compared with 19,873 in the 2021 period, according to Wards.
September’s slide would have been far greater without a surge in Class 6 sales that offset a plunge in Class 4 and Class 5.
ACT Research Vice President Steve Tam said, “But then the other challenge is the labor market continues to be a concern, especially for the medium-duty market where the chassis have a second trip through the body builder of upfitter.”
Tam added the labor pool is awfully shallow. “It’s just a really fragile market, and just a lot of competition, with low unemployment and everyone still trying to hire.”
Ironically, sales in September were the third-highest to date this year, trailing only 20,261 in August and 21,002 in March.
Class 7 sales inched up 0.6% to 3,959. The total was the third-highest this year. Freightliner led with 1,595 sales and International was right behind it at 1,564.
Freightliner is a unit of Daimler Truck North America. International is a brand of Navistar Inc., which is a unit of Traton Group.
Class 6 sales were the segment’s fifth-highest this year, jumping 26.5% to 5,782 compared with 4,570 a year earlier. Three truck makers combined to dominate the segment.
Freightliner led with 1,614. Ford Motor Co. was next with 1,518. International posted 1,371.
In September in the face of stiff competition, Kenworth made 235 sales in Class 7 and 127 in Class 6, according to Wards.
Kenworth is vying for business in what it noted is an expansive variety of applications, including cargo and reefer van, beverage, tow and recovery, utility, mechanic service, fuel oil and propane, landscaping, fire, dump and mixer.
Recently it made its 2022 medium-duty body builder manual available for download from the truck resources section of Kenworth’s website.
Classes 4 and 5 sales combined fell 20.6% to 9,022 compared with 11,368 a year earlier.
Ford led in Class 5 with sales of 3,418 out of a total of 6,747. Stellantis, which makes the Ram brand, posted 1,683, the next-highest.
Ford and Stellantis didn’t do as well in Class 5 compared with a year earlier, and that was the primary reason the overall medium-duty total fell.
In Class 4, Isuzu Commercial Truck of America led with 855 sales out of 2,275 overall, followed by Ford with 735.
Medium-duty year-to-date sales rose 9.5% to 179,246 compared with 163,683 a year earlier.
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