The first American Truck Dealers‘ (ATD) Truck Beat report of 2017 features some interesting information about changing marketshare in our industry over the last calendar year.
Before I tell you which OEMs made the biggest year-to-date market jumps in 2016, would you care to guess? To help in your guess, Truck Beat does not show individual OEM year-over-year sales totals per brand, just market share changes in a percentage over previous time periods. It also separates our market into Class 4-7 and Class 8 subsections, so you’d need to guess for both categories.
Do you have some names in your head?
Excellent.
Those of you who guessed Ford and Mack, pat yourselves on the back. You win today’s little game.
Ford was the only OEM in the Class 4-7 market to gain marketshare last year, gaining a whopping 2.6 percent year-over-year to extend its overall industry lead to 34.9 percent. Freightliner maintained its hold on second place but slipped by 0.8 percent to 23.8 percent marketshare, with International, Isuzu and Dodge also maintaining their positions in the top five but all slipping by less than a 1.0 percent.
In the heavy-duty Class 8 market, Mack’s win may be a numbers victory but a victory nonetheless.
The Volvo Group nameplate grew its marketshare by 0.9 percent to clock in at 8.9 percent overall in 2016. Kenworth’s 0.3 percent increase—bringing its overall marketshare to 15.3 percent—may have resulted in more total sales, but Mack wins today’s contest with the biggest year-over-year gains.
Other Class 8 OEMs posting year-to-date upswings in marketshare were Peterbilt and Western Star. Freightliner slipped by 0.7 percent but still dominated the market with a 37.6 percent share, more than 20 percentage points ahead of Kenworth.
Though I’m sure if you ask each OEM—or each other—these changes mean nothing when measured against 2016’s weak sales overall.
Truck Beat cites WardsAuto data and reports the Class 8 market totaled 192,664 sales last year, a 22.6 percent loss against 2015. The medium-duty market helped a little bit, climbing 3.5 percent in total sales to 207,694, but ultimately the weakness in the Class 8 market still left the industry down 10.9 percent against 2015.
Looking ahead, Truck Beat’ says selling conditions improved marginally in Q4 and show chances for improvements in Q1, but that overall, Class 4-8 sales are likely to “to hold steady, remaining close to their 2016 levels.”
To download this month’s issue, please CLICK HERE.
