In its first six months on sale, the all-new Hino 500 Series Standard Cab has shifted the ‘standards’ in the medium duty segment, driven primarily by its class-leading safety levels.
“So far, sales are reinforcing what we believed when we launched the all-new 500 Series Standard Cab in November 2018: customers are no longer willing to accept safety as an option in the Australian medium duty segment, which is why our truck features a class-leading safety package as standard,” said Bill Gillespie, General Manager of Brand and Franchise Development for Hino Australia.
“There has been almost 800 orders of the all-new 500 Series Standard Cab, which positions us well to meet our sales targets for the year,” continued Mr Gillespie.
The 500 Series Standard Cab boasts a standard level of safety that has never been seen before in a Japanese medium duty truck in Australia, including Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), and a Pre-Collision System (PCS) with Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Safety Eye (SE).
“These safety features have been particularly appealing to our customers in the agitator/mixer industries, while the Hino build attributes of Quality, Durability and Reliability continue to impress our customers in the traditional tilt tray applications.
“While safety is the primary motivator for many customers, they are also attracted to the superior torque, increased power and improved fuel efficiency of the heavy-duty Hino A05 turbo-charged five-litre four-cylinder diesel engine,” said Mr Gillespie.
The six-speed Allison 2500 Series fully automatic transmission is available across the range and accounts for 65% of sales to date.
“Customer orders of the 500 Series Standard Cab have been strong across the country with New South Wales leading the way, followed closely by Victoria and Queensland,” continued Mr Gillespie.
“In the overall medium duty segment, Hino has sold 908 trucks year-to-date, which translates to a 30% market share – this is a promising increase when compared to 860 units and a 26.9% share in 2018,” said Mr Gillespie of the segment which covers 500 Series Standard Cab and its award-winning stablemate, 500 Series Wide Cab.
When talking about the overall market, Mr Gillespie said:
“With very strong customer orders, we are striving for an overall yearly sales result of over 6000, which would be our best result since 2007,” he continued.
“By virtue of our extensive range, Hino is the only Japanese manufacturer that has achieved positive growth so far this year, which is very significant given the market has been a little slower so far this year.”
In addition to its class-leading safety standards, the all-new 500 Series Standard Cab range sets a new exhaust emissions benchmark for Japanese-built medium duty trucks in Australia, complying with Japan’s stringent post Post New Long Term (pPNLT) exhaust gas emissions standard, equivalent to the Euro 6 standard, and not expected to be introduced in Australia for a number of years.
