U.S. Class 8 retail sales in August stayed about the same from the year-ago period but increased from the prior month, Wards Intelligence reported.
Sales declined 1% to 23,342 units from 23,581 in 2022, but rose sequentially from 21,021 sold in July. It marked the first year-over-year drop this year. Year-to-date, Class 8 sales are up 15.2% to 180,106 units, compared with 156,275 at this time in 2022.
Wards found that five of the seven major truck makers experienced a year-over-year rise in truck sales. Daimler Truck North America’s Freightliner brand took the largest market share in August with 8,158 trucks sold, accounting for 34.9% of all sales, compared with 9,783 units in the same period a year earlier. Western Star, also a DTNA brand, reported that sales increased 19.5% to 722 units from 604.
Kenworth Truck Co.’s sales increased 11.5% to 3,689 units from 3,310, while Peterbilt Motors Co. saw sales rise 4.9% to 3,458 units from 3,298. Both are brands of Paccar Inc. Navistar’s International brand posted the largest percentage increase in sales with a 30.5% jump to 3,587 units from 2,749 in August 2022.
Mack Trucks’ sales edged up 0.3% to 1,598 from 1,594, but Volvo Trucks North America’s sales declined 5% year-over-year to 2,130 from 2,243, according to Wards. Mack and VTNA are brands of Volvo Group.
