Emissions scandal hinders Hino Euro 6 switch

HINO Australia has outlined its Euro 6 transition plans ahead of the ADR 80/40 change coming in December 2025, but with the update will come a significant production gap for key models as a knock-on effect from the truck-maker’s 2022 emissions scandal in Japan.

“Next year and the year after we face a significant challenge in our business offering,” Hino Australia president Richard Emery told GoAuto at a recent business update.

“As you know, late next year Australia will move to Euro 6. In that transition, we’ll see a production gap between our Euro 5 product offering and the incoming Euro 6 supply.”

Mr Emery explained that while brief production gaps between models are normal, the gap for Hino’s 300 and 500 Series models is “going to be significant.”

“We have a significant order bank on 500 Series, and we have enough supply to fulfil that order which remains significant through to late 2025,” he said.

“However, we will see a gap of supply of 10-months-plus in 2026 before we restock with Euro 6 products in late 2026.

“Beyond that, the 300 Series will also have a gap in availability, although not as severe as with the 500 Series, and we will sustain deliveries until the first half of 2026 before the product will see a gap in production in late 2026.”

The reason for the significant production gaps, Mr Emery explained, is the flow-on effect from Hino’s stop-sell in late 2022 following an emissions scandal that led to engineering and development delays.

“It’s not a secret that in 2022 Hino dealt with an emission and certification matter,” he said.

“It meant that Hino Motors Limited (HML) needed to go back and review some of those existing product lines to ensure the homologation and certification process was accurate and consistent.

“But in doing so, they basically stopped all work on Euro 6 for a period of time while they went back and did that work and obviously that’s going to impact us in terms of timing for Australia.”

However, Mr Emery pointed out that the 300 Series hybrid and 700 Series line-ups are already Euro 6, and the brand hopes its continued push across those models will fill the gap as it waits to bring Euro 6 300 Series and 500 Series models online.

“We have two products that are already Euro 6, so they don’t have a deadline to meet,” he said.

“You’ve already seen us ramp up on our commitment towards hybrid electric, so we want to really concentrate on these two products over the next two years. We still think there’s significant growth opportunity in hybrid electric anyway, and 700 Series has never really hit its tracks.”

Throughout its Euro 6 transition, Hino Australia will also consolidate its range from 164 total models down to 99 – and they will all be two-pedal automated-manual options.

“That rationalisation has been actually a long time coming,” said Hino Australia product strategy manager Daniel Petrovski.

“It makes our whole sales and marketing supply chain a lot easier to balance in terms of what we bring in, but it also gives us an opportunity to expand our sales volumes by targeting those markets and segments we’re selling into here.”

Mr Emery confirmed the truck-maker expects to achieve a 2024 sales result similar to last year, suggesting a figure “in the high 5000s,” having sold 5909 trucks in 2023.

He said Hino Australia expects a similar result in 2025 too, based on a healthy order bank.

“We will finish 2024 with a similar volume to last year, and our Euro 6 products – the 700 Series and 300 Series Hybrid Electric – will remain our focus for the coming years,” he said.

“Next year might be a few hundred short of that … maybe mid-5000s.”