Allison Transmission Europe has introduced two new versions of its xFE fully automatic transmission for use in medium-duty trucks in the EMEA region.

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.

Total tractor sales in the fiscal year 2020-21 (April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021)  fell by 28.9% to register 13,880 units compared with 19,516 units in the previous year (FY2019-20). Since two years ago this means the market has shrunk by 72% from when sales had registered 70,989 tractor 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).

Commercial vehicle manufacturer, Tata Motors Ltd of Mumbai, has released onto the Indian market a new generation of medium-duty Tata Ultra truck models – the Ultra Sleek T-Series of T.61, T.72 and T.93. All are offered in various deck lengths from 10 to 20 feet to meet a multiple range of applications and are equipped with the 4SPCR BS VI engines used previously only in the LCV truck range (i.e., below 7t gvw), but are now fitted in ICV range up to 9t gvw trucks.

Iveco Ltd of Basildon, UK has added new variants to its relaunched Drive Away bodybuilder programme for Daily diesel-powered LCVs.

Coinciding with the new medium-duty truck models for the Class 5&6 market segments,  Peterbilt Motors Company of Denton, Texas, part of Paccar Inc, has also  launched this new ‘medium’ truck design in the Class 7/8 market segments, under Model 537 and Model 548.

Peterbilt Motors Company of Denton, Texas, part of Paccar Inc, has launched a new range of medium-duty trucks, Model 535 and Model 536, designed for the Class 5/6 non-CDL (non-commercial driver-licence) lease and rental markets.

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.