Medium-Duty Sales Rise in April to Clear 19,000
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April U.S. retail sales in Classes 4-7 rose 23.9% to more than 19,000 vehicles, reflecting gains in all segments, WardsAuto.com reported.
Sales hit 19,431 compared with 15,686 a year earlier. Year-to-date sales increased 18.3% to 79,185 compared with 66,957 in the 2020 period, according to Wards.
Class 7 improved 10.4% to 3,643 compared with 3,301 a year earlier. Freightliner was the market leader with 1,539 sales, good for a 42.2% share. Paccar Inc.’s Peterbilt Motors Co. and Kenworth Truck Co. combined for 1,267 sales, or a 34.7% share.
Class 6 rose 70.9% to 4,286 compared with 2,508 a year earlier. International, a brand of Navistar Inc., took the top spot by one sale more than Freightliner — 1,163 to 1,162.
“That implies that the rental/lease companies are back buying new trucks,” said Steve Tam, vice president at ACT Research.
Mack Trucks, which late last year entered the medium-duty market, sold 113 in the segment, and 25 in Class 7. The truck maker began production of the Classes 6-7 trucks at its new Roanoke Valley, Va., plant Sept. 1 after being set back two months by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In Classes 4-5, sales rose 16.5% to 11,502 compared with 9,877 a year earlier.
Class 4 sales of 2,122 were led, again, by Isuzu Commercial Truck of America with 1,086 sales out of 2,122.
In Class 5, Ford once again dominated with 4,674 sales out of 9,380.
In a first-quarter earnings call, Cummins Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger said the company’s opportunities with medium-duty engines are expanding.
“In North America, Daimler Trucks North America will replace their vertically integrated engines with Cummins’ engines ahead of CARB regulations in 2024 and EPA regulations in 2027,” Linebarger said, referring to the California Air Resources Board.
Cummins’ engines will be used in Daimler medium-duty chassis in Europe, Brazil and India coinciding with those regions’ next-generation emissions regulations, he said. “In the future, global medium-duty engine systems for Daimler Trucks and Buses all over the world will be provided by Cummins.”
Meanwhile, Isuzu will introduce trucks powered by Cummins B6.7 diesel platform engines in North America first in 2021, and in Japan, Southeast Asia and other regions at later dates, he said.
Cummins 6.7 and L9 engines will be available in Hino trucks in North America by the end of this year.
Linebarger added: “The diesel stuff is moving now because [truck makers] have to make investment choices today: Do I invest in the new [diesel engine] platform or do I have somewhere else to invest?”
He said Cummins was working with truck makers, too, on managing the transition “from internal combustion engines to lower carbon hybrids and eventually to zero-emissions products in the future.”
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