Commercial vehicle makers have taken an optimistic stance at the Hanover commercial vehicle show (running until 2 October) despite the credit crunch, with most predicting a sales rise in 2008.
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While market conditions may be tough in Europe, they remain strong in emerging markets and it’s those areas – especially the ‘BRIC’ markets Brazil, Russia, India and China – that are driving sales of vans and trucks.
Volkswagen reported sales up 9.3% year on year in the first eight months of 2008 with Eastern Europe and Latin America driving the rise.
“In the booming eastern European markets, we managed to grow our delivery numbers by nearly 30%,” said VW Commercial Vehicles CEO Stephan Schaller.
“In Russia alone we sold 87% more vehicles than in the previous year.”
The picture was just as rosy in South America, where deliveries of light and heavy commercial vehicles increased by around 25%.
VW truck and bus president Roberto Cortes said: “Considering the favourable economy in Latin America, we expect to end 2008 with a sales volume close to 60,000 trucks and buses, representing a new all-time record.”
Iveco CEO Paolo Monferino reported a similar pattern: “We foresee a contraction in western European demand during the second half of 2008, but this will be partially offset by the growth in other markets, in particular Latin America and Eastern Europe.”
Daimler’s head of trucks Andreas Renschler reported group CV sales up 3% in the year to the end of August, thanks to 17% growth in Latin America; 14% in eastern Europe; 11% in the Middle East and “an astounding 60%” growth in southeast Asia.
“We continue to systematically expand our presence in the world’s growth markets,” he added. “In Brazil we’re investing more than EUR600m to increase our production capacity by 25%. We’ve also launched production of trucks and buses in India and we’re preparing for market entry in China and Russia as well.”
