Sales expected to rise by 10% ahead of Euro-6
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By Steve Hobson
MANUFACTURERS ARE predicting heavy truck sales will surge at least 10% in 2013 compared with this year as operators seek to delay the purchase of Euro-6 vehicles, which will replace Euro-5 in 2014.
Although Euro-5 trucks built before 30 September 2013 may be stockpiled and registered up until the end of 2014, all new trucks built after January 2014 for the EU must conform to Euro-6.
The predicted spike in Euro-5 sales in 2013 is expected to result in longer lead times for new trucks, and one operator – Andrew SpenceWolrich, general manager of bulk specialist Hargreaves Transport – has been told he must order Euro-5 trucks by March 2013 to be sure of getting them.
Daf marketing director Tony Pain is advising operators to plan now to avoid missing out on the last of the Euro-5 stock. “We do not yet have a cut-off date for ordering Euro-5 but, based on our usual lead times of three to four months, if you haven’t ordered by June next year you will not get them,” he says. “We will build more trucks next year but it is very dificult to say how many.” A spokesman for Mercedes-Benz says it “will not be processing orders for Euro-5 after the end of July/beginning of August” .
Iveco product director Martin Flach says: “March seems early at present but we could ind production is sold out even before that. I can’t see much Euro-5 availability after May.” MAN UK CEO Des Evans agrees that operators need to plan ahead, but pledges MAN will have ample stocks of Euro-5 trucks to meet UK demand. “I have 5,000 allocated to the UK market in 2013,” he says. “The problem for many operators will be raising the inance as balance sheets are in poor shape.” Evans predicts that the UK market will surge to 42,000 or 43,000 units in 2013 before falling back to 34,000 to 35,000 in 2014, compared with 37,410 units sold in 2011.
• See MAN’s Euro-6 fuel consumption comments on page 14 and page 48 for the impact of Euro-6 on the used market.