April Class 8 Sales Up 19.4% Year-Over-Year

U.S. Class 8 retail sales in April increased 19.4% from a year ago but declined on a month-to-month basis, Wards Intelligence reported.

Class 8 sales for the month reached 22,741 units, up from 19,052 in April 2022 but down 8.4% from the 24,823 sold in March. Truck retail sales have experienced a year-over-year increase every month this year.

Freightliner, a brand of Daimler Truck North America, once again led sales with 8,580 trucks moved, good for a 37.7% market share. Navistar notched the largest year-over-year increase, as sales of its International brand trucks jumped 59.4% to 3,046 units from 1,911 last year.

Six of the seven major truck manufacturers posted gains over the prior year. Kenworth Truck Co.’s sales increased 23.3% to 3,191 from 2,588, while Peterbilt Motors Co. sales grew 4.6% to 3,318 from 3,173. Both are brands of Paccar Inc.

Mack Trucks’ sales grew 6.1% to 1,536 from 1,448, and Volvo Trucks North America’s increased 5.1% year-over-year to 2,549 from 2,425. Mack and VTNA are brands of Volvo Group. Western Star, a Daimler brand, saw a 26.7% decrease in sales to 491 from 670.

In addition, Tesla sold 30 of its Class 8 Semi electric trucks.