The Indonesian market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw grew by 16% to 46,811 units in the first quarter of 2023 from 40,349 units in the same period of last year, as the domestic economy continued to recover from covid-related lockdowns.

The Malaysian commercial vehicle market over 2 tons gvw continued to expand in the first quarter of 2023, by almost 13% after growing by over 20% a year earlier.

The Philippine market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw shrank by more than 3% in the first quarter of 2023 after growing by 12% in the same period of last year.

Sales of commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw in East Asia’s seven main markets, excluding China, fell by over 2% year-on-year to 372,543 units in the first quarter of 2023 after growing just 1.6% to 364,641 units in the fourth quarter of last year.

This moves comes on the back of a major repower bus order in the Capital and to combat competition primarily coming from Chinese OEMs.

June saw Hyundai sign a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean Ministry of Environment, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and others to convert more than 1,300 public transportation vehicles to hydrogen fuel cell power by 2026.

Economic growth in the country accelerated to 4.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, up from a multi-decade low of 3.0% in the whole of last year, as the country began a gradual recovery from the Covid pandemic.

The new distribution centre replaces the existing facility in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, which had been the company’s main parts distribution hub since it was first opened in 1978.

This fall was sharper than the overall economy. Economic growth slowed to 3.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023 from 5.9% in the previous quarter and 8% in the whole of 2022.

Isuzu and Honda joined forces in 2020 to develop heavy-duty trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells and have now successfully developed a prototype based on Isuzu’s Giga truck

The strong sales growth came about despite economic growth continuing to slow sharply in the first quarter to 0.8% year-on-year from 1.4% in the fourth quarter and 2.6% in the whole of last year.

The market continued to decline despite a pick-up in economic growth to 2.7% year-on-year in the first quarter after slowing to 1.4% in the fourth quarter of last year.