Mitsubishi Fuso has made some important improvements to its Canter light-duty truck for compliance with Japanese regulations to be introduced in September 2021.

Domestic sales of medium- and heavy-duty rigid trucks fell by 15.41% to 139,486 units in FY2020 from 164,896 units in the financial year 2019-20. While this appears not to be a major fall if the registrations last year are compared with two years ago, when 280,139 units were registered, this is a halving of the market in two years.

Sales of LCV goods carrier (trucks) vehicles (gvw ≤ 7.5t) saw sales decline by 11.5% in the fiscal year 2020-21 (April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021) to 395,783 units from 447,351 units in FY2019-20. This is the second year of decline from 564,409 unit sales two years ago; a difference of 170,000 units!

Sales of medium and heavy rigid trucks (7.5t gvw and above) in India during the fourth quarter (January to March 2021) of fiscal year 2020-21 increased by 112.1% to register 66,330 units, up from 31,275 units in same quarter of the year, 2019-20. This recovery was also in contrast to the decrease in the same quarter last year, which saw the market collapse from the previous year’s final quarter period (Q4/2018-19) when 80,355 trucks were registered.

Tractor sales grew by 55.5% during the fourth quarter in fiscal year 2020-21 (January to March) to register 8,413 units compared with 5,409 units in the same quarter of the previous year (FY2019-20). Tractor production increased by 72.5% overall from 4,970 units to 8,572 units and exports were also up by 24.2%.

Sales of LCV goods carrier (truck) vehicles (gvw ≤ 7.5t) grew strongly in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020-21 (April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021) and by 41.9% to register 125,160 units, up from 88,189 units in same period of FY2019-20. Production of LCV goods carriers increased by 42.8% to 141,939 vehicles from 99,408 in the same quarter the year before, and exports grew by 53.1% to 11,503 (7,514).

Hino Motors Ltd of Hino-shi from mid-2022 plans to release onto the Japanese market, the Hino Dutro Z EV – the company’s first full-scale electric vehicle which is designed for ‘last mile deliveries.’

During 2020, Russia registered a total of 97,882 light-duty commercial vehicles with gross vehicle weight of up to 5t, which was 6.1% fewer than the 104,224 units registered in 2019, according to statistical data provided by Avtostat Info.

Light-duty truck builder, Ulyanovsk Auto Plant (UAZ) of Ulyanovsk - a subsidiary of Sollers JSC - has unveiled a 4x2 version with dual wheels of its light-duty commercial truck, UAZ Profi.

Fuso Truck & Bus Australia of Huntingwood, NSW has launched Daimler Trucks’ series-produced Fuso eCanter in Australia.

Truck production in Brazil maintained an upward trend in the first quarter this year, despite the assembly lines being forced to shut down towards the end of March and has continued to the second week of April.

Truck sales in Brazil during the first quarter this year grew by 29.5%, 26,139 units compared with 20,160 units in the same period of 2020.