Speaking to the Australian truck media at a recent business briefing, Hino President and CEO, Richard Emery, has expressed confidence in the Japanese manufacturer’s future in Australia, despite the challenges arising from the current dynamic global environment.
“Despite the obvious short-term global uncertainty, we believe the Australian economic outlook remains positive with steady long-term growth through to 2030. Having said that, market conditions are likely to remain subdued through 2026, with growth now likely delayed until early 2027,” said Richard.
“While there was some initial momentum earlier in the year, recent global factors have tempered this outlook, with the market forecast to remain relatively flat this year before returning to steady, long-term growth”.
Mr. Emery expects Hino Australia’s core market sector (trucks under 500hp) to stabilise in 2026 before returning to steady, sustainable growth by 2030, following COVID-driven peaks and subsequent Euro VI supply-driven troughs.
“Our 700 Series heavy duty range is gaining strong momentum driven by improved supply, a compelling value proposition and an expanded model range,” said Richard. “Our order intake on 700 Series has close to tripled in the last six months. So we can certainly see both our dealers and our customers are reacting in terms of what it offers.
“Today, we have better supply, a strong value proposition, together with the expanded line-up. So we have the product, we have a great value proposition in place, and now we have a much broader model line-up than before”.
It’s not just the Heavy Duty sector in which Richard has confidence.
“Hino is well-positioned with our Euro VI emissions-compliant 300 Series 150hp diesel light-duty models available to order now, and the high horsepower and crew cab options arriving in the middle of 2027.
“We are also increasing our range of Built to Go products over the next 18 months, starting with a 300 Series Hybrid Electric Tipper, which will be on sale in Hino dealerships nationwide from June this year.”
The Hino 300 Series Hybrid Electric Light Duty truck remains a strong focus for Hino and for its customers who can reduce fuel costs by as much as 24 per cent in Wide Cab variants and 22 per cent in Standard Cab models.
“Higher diesel prices have further highlighted the strong value proposition of our 300 Series Hybrid Electric versus its diesel equivalent,” says Richard.
“It will compound further when we introduce our Euro VI diesels in the middle of the year as they will have an associated price increase,” says Richard. “2025 was a record year for Hino Hybrid Electric with a 24 per cent increase compared to 2024 and we expect 2026 to be even stronger.”
After being out of production for around two years the Hino 500 series is soon returning to the Australian market.
“Completing our range is our 500 Series Medium Duty trucks which will be on sale from July, and arriving in dealerships in early 2027,” said Richard.
Richard Emery recognised the challenges facing Australian transport operators including fine margins, and the shortage of drivers.
“We still get customers saying to us, ‘If you could find me some drivers, I’ll buy some more trucks from you’. We need to do more work to encourage people to choose trucking. The truck industry is a great career, but we need to be able to keep them in the industry. And we’ve got some issues rolling around the country at the moment in terms of workloads, delivery pressure, and racism – issues that are forcing many people out of the industry.
“At the moment, we need to keep everybody because we’re already short of people, and if we keep losing people, then that’s only going to make things harder. Over the next five to ten years, we’re already around 30,000 drivers short, and that will only get worse if we don’t arrest that leakage of drivers”.
The truck body building industry faces similar workforce challenges and Hino is implementing a strategy aimed at closing the time gap between truck order and delivery of a complete ready to work vehicle.
“The challenge that we’ve had, in fact the whole industry has had, over the last five years is getting vehicles to a point of delivery to customers in a suitable time frame. The time frame between arrival in Australia to delivery to a customer has blown out to close to four and a half to five months. This needs to be significantly shortened, and we’ve been taking some action on this through what we call Project Vortex.
“In simple terms, Project Vortex is about delivering more trucks more quickly. We’re expanding our build to go range beyond the models that we’ve had in place over the last five to ten years.
“We are working with a number of partners on joint venture activities to bring an even wider variety of vehicles to a finished state, so that they are ready for delivery, rather than having to go through a long body build process. We’ve also taken the decision to take on some local engineering solutions to speed up the availability of suitable products to our consumers and to our dealers.”
Richard Emery also used the business briefing to call on the Federal Government to provide more support for the trucking and transport industry.
“Recent shortages and increased prices of diesel have acutely highlighted the importance of the trucking industry to the Australian public,” said Richard.
“I remain frustrated at the lack of genuine understanding, care, dialogue and focus on this industry at a Federal Government level, and to some extent, at the state level as well. I am calling for a renewed focus on the transport portfolio with the appointment of a dedicated Transport Minister within Cabinet,” said Richard.
“This is not a criticism of the current Minister Catherine King MP, who is Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government of Australia, and, ironically, my local Member,” he says.
“Catherine has a huge portfolio and an expectation that any minister can be across the intricacies of such a diverse portfolio, and give Transport the focus it deserves and requires, is unrealistic.
“A dedicated Transport Minister would help facilitate a more streamlined approach to the safety, emissions, efficiency and productivity issues facing the industry including the aging truck fleet, lack of drivers and a practical and balanced regulatory transition to low and zero emissions vehicles,” Richard adds.
Another matter which is going to influence the Hino business in Australia going forward is Archion, the holding company which was established to assume full ownership of truck manufacturing companies Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino 2026, following their 2025 merger agreement.
Archion became operational on 1 April 2026 to align with the Japanese fiscal year. Daimler Truck and Toyota, respectively the parent companies of Fuso and Hino, each own 25 per cent of Archion.
Hino Motor Sales Australia is fully owned by Hino Motors Limited which, in turn, is now 100 per cent owned by Archion with Daimler truck and Toyota as major shareholders alongside other institutional and Japanese financial investors.
“We certainly see a positive outcome, and it certainly will give us an opportunity to expand our portfolio over time, not only in terms of the product offering, but in terms of the technology both parties, Daimler and Toyota, will bring to the table. We look forward to the impact of Archion on over the next five to ten years, in terms of what will allow us to offer our customers here in Australia,” Richard says.
“We therefore are pretty confident about the future in the short to medium term, and we certainly see a business environment that we can plan and build strategies to maximise our outcomes for the Hino business, for our stakeholders and our customers.”
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