Positive Plans

Coinciding with Hino’s heavy involvement in the Bathurst 1000 Supercars race, Hino Australia President and CEO Richard Emery provided a business briefing for the Australian truck media.

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

Hino will continue to expand the customer base for its range of Hybrid Electrics while promoting the hybrid technology’s suitability for most light-duty truck applications.

On display at the event were a number of Hino Hybrid Electric trucks with a variety of bodies including the tilt tray recovery vehicle and a local council-specified tipper which features an electric PTO (Power Take-Off), which allows the tipper to operate even when the diesel engine is not running.

“We continue to see interest in our Built-to-Go bodies from tradespeople and the construction industry in general,” Richard says.

Richard cited the state-of-the-art Hino Parts Distribution Centre as a key contributor to the ongoing strong results in the aftersales side of the business.

The parts distribution centre was an $18 million investment in the middle of COVID and has seen the parts business increase by 40 per cent since 2020.

“Clients are keeping trucks longer to meet customer requirements, even while adding new vehicles to their fleets, increasing the demand for genuine parts,” says Richard.

“There’s been a 30 per cent increase in inventory levels and the speed of delivery is now three times quicker.”

Hino currently has a number of Hybrid Electric 700 Series operating in Japan.

“Next year, we’ll introduce some 700 Series Hybrid Electric vehicles to key Australian clients to confirm their practicality and cost benefits,” Richard says.

“In addition, we will have a number of light-duty battery electric Dutro (300 Series) Z-EVs on trial to confirm their range and operational capacity in the Australian market. This will ensure that when the time comes in Australia for full-scale electric vehicles, Hino will have a product that meets our customers’ needs and specifications.”

Richard expects unit sales for Hino in the Australian market to be in the “high 5,000s” for 2024, with the qualifying assumption that the body building industry can deliver finished product.

“The local body building industry has simply not been able to keep up or adjust to surge since COVID,” he says.

“It’s settling down a little bit now but it’s still going to be a problem going forward. A typical time to build up a finished truck is now 120 days. It was 90 pre-COVID. And there are plenty of examples of customers waiting six to nine months for a body builder slot.”

Australia will move to the equivalent of Euro VI emission standards in late 2025 and this is likely to have an impact on the availability of some Hino models.

For the Hino 500 Series there will be supply of the current model to fulfil the significant current order bank, but Richard tempers that situation by acknowledging there will be a gap in supply for ten months or more in 2026, before Hino Australia restocks with Euro VI product later in the year.

“What this means at the practical front is we have effectively sold out of the current 500 series until late 2026,” says Richard.

“Our dealers will not be taking any new orders. The 300 Series will also have a gap in its availability. We can sustain deliveries until early 2026, then there will also be a gap in production.”

Richard is upfront about the ‘troubles’ Hino experienced several years ago.

“It’s not a secret that in 2022 Hino dealt with an emission and certification matter,” he says. “We were on a stop-sale period on 500 Series while that issue was investigated and reviewed, and the 500 returned to sale late 2022.”

The pause in production impacted other markets including the Japanese domestic market.

“It meant that Hino Motors Limited needed to delay some of the engineering and development programs to go back and review and revise some of those existing product lines to ensure that homologation and certification processes were accurate and consistent,” Richard says.

“In doing so, that basically stopped all work on Euro VI 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.”

The good news for Hino Australia and its customers is the 700 Series and the Hybrid won’t be affected as they are already both Euro VI compliant and there will be a higher level of concentration on these models.

Hino’s Product Strategy Manager Daniel Petrovski took the media through Hino’s proposed model line-up rationalisation for Australia including a move away from manual transmissions to be exclusively automated or automatic.

“The 700 Series was the first one where we said there are no more three pedals.” Daniel says. “The market for Heavy Duty manual trucks is done.”

A rationalisation of the entire Hino model line-up will result in 25 models of the 300 Series instead of the current 46. The 500 Series standard cab line up will decrease from 47 to 26 models, while the 500 Series wide cab offering will reduce from 53 to 19 but will include a new automatic factory tipper available in the new ADR80/04 Euro VI range.

The Hino 700 Series range will expand from 18 to 29 models by the ADR 80/04 Euro VI changeover, with additional 4×2, 6×4 and 8×4 models across variety of wheelbases.

A 9.0 litre 360hp/1569Nm engine will be backed by an automated manual transmission and will have a choice of leaf spring or air rear suspension. A 320hp engine specification will be available with an Allison full-automatic transmission.

Suitable for single trailer and council tipper and dog applications, a 13-litre engine with 450hp/2157Nm and leaf or air suspension will be available with a lighter 12-speed AMT without the retarder which is part of the 16-speed package. Hino Australia’s next steps in terms of low emission vehicles were also outlined by Richard.

“Our 300 Series Hybrid Electric trucks have been reducing fuel consumption and emissions for over 15 years in Australia and they are a most appropriate solution for the current business and customer environment,” he explains.

“Our parent company Hino Motors continues to trial and develop solutions for improved efficiency of internal combustion engines, Hybrid Electric, Battery Electric and Fuel Cell drivetrains, investments that run into the billions. We’ve got a lot going on in the background as we transition to Euro VI.”

Hino is hardly, according to Richard, sitting back and relaxing.

“We are not deniers,” he says.

“Together with our dealer partners we are investing in the future, and we are working on a practical and timely introduction of those drivetrain solutions whenever they make sense and that we have a product offering for.”