Hino broadens focus across range

HINO Australia announced annual sales volume similar to last year but the sales mix has shifted, and the brand’s overarching business philosophy now focuses on balance across light-, medium- and heavy-duty offerings.

Attending a recent business briefing in Adelaide, where Hino Australia executives shared insights into the importer’s state of affairs and future plans, GoAuto learnt that Hino Australia has not only reduced delivery times across 2023, but has skewed its sales mix towards heavier models, with around 6000 units expected to be sold by year’s end.

According to Hino Australia vice president of brand and franchise development, Richard Emery, 75 per cent of the brand’s order bank is now made up of 500 Series and 700 Series models, with just 25 per cent coming from the delay-stricken light-duty 300 Series, ordinarily the brand’s top-seller.

“If you’d asked me that five years ago, it would have been the other way around, it would have been 75 per cent 300 Series,” he said.

“On our order intake, 500 Series has bounced back and is growing again because that model had a difficult 2022, and 700 Series continues to grow despite being held back a little bit by production capacity.

“So, if we could get some extra supply, which we intend to do in 2024, then I think 700 Series probably can grow by more than 10 per cent.”

While medium- and heavy-duty models now make up the bulk of Hino Australia’s sales mix, the light-duty 300 Series Hybrid Electric has seen a substantial 400 per cent year-on-year increase in orders following a renewed marketing push.

“This year will be a record year for 300 Series Hybrid Electric – we have already delivered over 200 units, and we have another 100 pending delivery,” said Mr Emery.

“Our Hybrid Electric has been a success story from our perspective because the stars started to align during 2022 in the sense of fuel use, focus on emissions and a significant shift towards leasing companies' understanding of resale value.

“All of a sudden Hybrid Electric had three or four things going for it and that has kicked things along.”

Mr Emery outlined his frustrations around lingering supply constraints, particularly affecting its 300 Series models, thanking customers for their patience.

“While our sales position has been frustrated over the last two years through supply and logistics constraints, our order intake has stayed strong and our customers have remained consistent in their support of us,” he said.

“It would be fair to say that supply restrictions around our light-duty 300 Series and medium-duty 500 Series trucks have been challenging for our dealers and customers, and we are grateful for their patience.”

The light-duty 300 Series has borne the brunt of constraint issues, off the back of a sizable gap in production that is set to grow, relating to the homologation of certain parts.

“We had a five-month gap in production last year and we are about to have a six-month gap in production next year, which is just componentry,” Mr Emery told GoAuto.

“It’s just as simple as changing from one component to another, so it’s a supplier issue.”

Hino Australia’s after-sales side of the business continued to grow across 2023 posting an 11 per cent year-on-year parts sales improvement, as well as winning Parts Department of the Year for the 15th consecutive time as part of Hino’s global awards.

“In 2023, we will again achieve record part sales, which has been made possible by the ongoing efforts of our dealer network and our state-of-the-art Parts Distribution Centre which we opened during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2021,” he added.

“Our service workshops and parts business are operating at record levels this year, and this has seen our dealer partners investing in greater capacity and resources to fulfil this growth, which is expected to continue into 2024.”

Hino Australia is also part way through investing $45 million alongside its dealer network to improve service and parts capacity, with major projects like a new parts facility and various dealership upgrades already completed.

Looking to 2024, Mr Emery confirmed the focus will remain on Hybrid Electric models, consisting so far of only the 300 Series model, as well as growing heavy-duty model penetration.

“From a sales and marketing perspective, 2024 will see a further concentration on our Hybrid Electric products while we expect our heavy-duty 700 Series to experience further sales growth,” he said.

“Our current focus is to invest in and entrench a sustainable and robust business model that will perform regardless of any potential challenges.”

Hybrid hopes…

Earlier this year it was announced Daimler Truck Holding AG and Toyota Motor Corp would merge truck operations, which will see sub-brands Hino and Fuso collaborating to achieve the scale required to make advanced zero-emission and autonomous truck technology.

According to Mr Emery, the new program will bring about changes that benefit customers by offering the best technology available from either manufacturer across their respective ranges.

“Part of the potential advantage of this new program is that they'll be able to choose the best technology from each of the parent businesses, whether that be Daimler or whether that be Toyota, because they will both be equally invested both financially and in that new entity,” he explained.

Echoing the sentiments of Mr Emery, Hino Australia product strategy manager Daniel Petrovski told GoAuto that talks are also in place to introduce electric or additional hybrid models that will further bolster the importer’s position in the Australian market.

“Richard (Emery) and I are having daily discussions about some plans we're putting in place for some trial vehicles but when we look at what's happening in Japan, they have Dutro Z EV in that market already - they've had it on sale for a year,” he added.

“Hybrid-electric 700 Series has been on sale for a number of years and fuel-cell 700 Series is on trial – we're the first Japanese manufacturer to be trialling those on the roads in Japan.

“They have trial plug-in hybrid buses, there are multiple alternative solutions in the Japanese market, so of course we have formulated a plan that looks at all those options.

“We are working with Japan to bring those in, trial them with local customers, and roll them out when the time is ready,” he said, hinting at the fact Hino Australia is working behind the scenes to secure trials.

With 700 Series sales on the rise, a model not affected by supply constraints like the lighter end of Hino Australia’s product offering, Mr Petrovski explained that the introduction of the Hybrid version available in Japan would require a strong commercial business case for local customers.

“It does make sense, from purely a fuel perspective, but we need to look at that based on the customer outcomes,” he emphasised.

“So, battery electric vehicles are a great example. From a commercial vehicle point of view, battery electric vehicles being sold either have government money, in terms of some funds supporting them, or they’ve got marketing money.

“The business case doesn’t make sense from a commercial point of view, and you don’t get any payback, versus a conventional diesel vehicle.

“So, just to be the first to market, yes, you get some marketing brownie points, but that doesn’t lead to a long-term good relationship with our customers.

“We need to look at, if we bring a Hybrid 700 Series into the market, as an example, that the payback period for them needs to make sense and we need to get all of those business cases locked in and confirmed and then do trials.

“There’s a long process we need to go through.”