Richard Emery, president and CEO of Hino Australia, recently gave an update on the state of play for the business currently and moving forward, as the company transitions towards Euro 6.
Refreshingly honest, Richard spoke of the companies supply problems, particularly with their ‘Ready To Go’ range – as well as a stronger emphasis going forward on the Hino Hybrid Electric product, currently available in the 300 Series, and possible testing of the 700 Series Hybrid Electric (available in Japan) in Australia in 2025.
The Hybrid Electric demonstration fleet on display showed various applications that the company is honing in on in terms of where they think this propulsion form is at its best – the fleet to be used for drives and training with dealerships and customers going forward.
Using the famous Bathurst 1000 race weekend as a platform, Richard spoke about the company’s involvement in motorsport. For the same reason that journalists were keen to attend the weekend, the company uses their involvement as an attraction for customers and dealers who continue to be engaged in Supercars.
The company has been involved in the sport for a long time on a number of different levels. They are a major sponsor of the Supercar Championship itself including the iconic Hino Hub (technology) and the Recovery Team (safety), sponsoring the Toyota 86 Series and a partnership with Team 18 (performance).
The Hino Sportsdeck: the absolute best view at Bathurst. Image: Graham HarsantThe company believes that all these elements provide a great connection to the Hino brand. “These are all brand attributes fundamental to our business,” said Richard. “And we can execute and activate them with our relationship with supercars.”
In talking of the company’s market outlook and performance, Emery was candid in his comments.
“We have seen a softening of the market in the last six months after being on quite a strong run. That is probably manifesting itself mostly in the light segment while the corporate levels are still consistent and robust. Post-Covid government incentives pushed sales dramatically, causing supply chain issues. 2024 is settling back down due to some structural issues, supply and the market is coming back a bit.”
Hino sees problems in getting bodies built, and believes that key to any opportunities going forward is the OEM’s working to control and increase capacity of the finished product.
As an example, the time to build up a finished truck (trays, tippers,etc) has stretched out to an average of over 120 days currently whereas only a few years ago it was 90 days.
“We have many examples of customers having to wait six months or more for a body build slot and get a body put on a truck. So the local bodybuilding industry has not been able to keep up and adjust to the surge that has occurred since Covid. Whilst settling down a bit it is still going to be a problem going forward and has put the company on the back foot.”
Hino believe they need to take greater control of the finished product, especially as – unlike many other manufacturers – they warrant the bodies on their trucks. Whilst the company does not receive a great number of warranty claims, the far larger proportion of these is related to these bodies, hence the company’s desire to be able to exercise greater control and influence in this area. “All the customer sees is a Hino. They don’t see the truck and the body as two separate entities so it is obviously in our interest to ensure that the body supplied to our trucks are simply the best.
“Our bodybuilding industry in Australia is majority mum and dad, a shed and some welders. Hino build their tippers out of Kyoto in Japan and it is a production line like building a truck, with robots et cetera. We don’t have that scale in Australia and when we spoke to a lot of our bodybuilders with whom we have very good relationships they were reticent to commit to a bigger share because of staffing problems et cetera. So the capacity hasn’t grown to keep up with the demand.”
The company has invested heavily in their parts distribution business recently and has seen the impact the investment has had on the business over the past three or four years. This was a significant investment in the middle of Covid which doubled the capacity of their parts capability. Off the back of that, the company has seen the parts business increase by 40 per cent.
When supply of new vehicles was under severe pressure through 2021, 2022 and 2023, clients were keeping their old trucks longer to meet customer demands and Hino was able to supply the necessary parts and equipment to enable them to do so.
This led to pressure on work bay capacity and qualified staff – problems common to the trucking industry as a whole. Hino has worked with dealers to get more young people into the industry but it remains an issue, albeit slightly easing. These problems exist across bodybuilding and auxiliary industries that feed the company’s business.
Dealers have also invested some $50 million on their facilities since Covid, showing their faith in the company’s product.
Richard Emery went on to discuss the company’s sales projections for the future, predicting a drop from the current high 5000s to around the 4000 mark for 2025 due to the tooling up and introduction of Euro 6 vehicles
“Late next year Australia will move to Euro 6. In that transition will see a production gap between our Euro 5 offering and the incoming Euro 6 supply. This in itself is not unusual as you retool.
“We have been working through this with our dealers and customers and whilst not ideal we have managed to balance this approach and the challenge in terms of our conversations with dealers and customers.
“Beyond that, 300 series will also have a gap in availability although not as severe as the 500 series. Whilst the dealers are somewhat frustrated and disappointed they remain committed to our joint business despite this hiccup in 2026. A normal trading environment is expected to return in 2027.”
Hino is not ignoring full electric or BEV, having one on display at Bathurst for trucking journalists to get a first-hand look at. Image: Graham HarsantThe company has two products which are already Euro 6, these being the heavy duty 700 Series and the 300 Series Hybrid Electric. The company is concentrating on these two products over the next couple of years.
“We think there is significant growth opportunity in Hybrid Electric, and the 700 has never really hit its straps. Our supply line for the 700 series has been restrained over the last couple of years and that is now opening up. We will be working hard to increase sales well beyond the 500 or so per annum that we are currently moving.”
Hino believes that sales of 1000 plus for both the 700 Series and 300 Series Hybrid Electric are eminently achievable. Hybrid Electric is a no-brainer in that whilst requiring a greater outlay of capital (approximately $16,000), the benefits in terms of fuel saving and greater power far outweigh cost and relatively minor weight penalties
Customers that would not look at Hybrid Electric a year ago are now coming to Hino with renewed interest. Given the consistently high price of diesel, the only surprise is that they didn’t investigate earlier. Adding to their confidence should be parent company, Toyota’s solid reputation in the field of hybrid electric.
In further news Hino have announced that with the Euro six change the company will move totally to two-pedal operation, deleting manual transmissions as an option. They will also be rationalising the range, reducing product variants from 164 to 99. The 700 Series will go against the trend, increasing that range from 18 to 29 models.
A new (for Australia) in-house 12 speed AMT gear box will also be offered for the first time on various products.
Hino is not ignoring full electric or BEV, having one on display at Bathurst. However the company sees huge market advantage in being able to provide Hybrid Electric vehicles with their attendant benefits as a method of transitioning.
As the only player in this field at this time, Hino would have to be in the box seat to capitalise on a unique but proven product.
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