Heavy truck sales really collapsed during the great recession, falling to a low of 180 thousand SAAR in May 2009. Then heavy truck sales increased to a new all time high of 575 thousand SAAR in September 2019.
However heavy truck sales started declining in late 2019 due to lower oil prices.
Note: “Heavy trucks – trucks more than 14,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.”
Click on graph for larger image.
Heavy truck sales really declined towards the end of March due to COVID-19 and the collapse in oil prices, but have since rebounded.
Heavy truck sales were at 454 thousand SAAR in December, down from 477 thousand SAAR in November, and down 5% from 475 thousand SAAR in December 2019.
For the year, heavy truck sales were 409 thousand, down 22.3% from 527 thousand in 2019. This was the fewest heavy truck sales since 2016.