In Q1 2026, Australian truck brand consideration remained concentrated around a familiar group of market leaders, but with sharper competition building just beneath the top position. Isuzu and Mercedes-Benz Trucks made meaningful gains, Kenworth gave back a portion of its Q4 2025 share, and the leading trio tightened their collective hold over the market while smaller brands continued to compete across a fragmented lower tier.
Read on for the major Q1 2026 takeaways and the key brand movements shaping the Australian truck market right now.
A Note on Methodology
This report was produced using a range of keyword research tools to assess truck brand search behaviour across Australia for Q1 2026. The dataset included 19 truck brands, nearly 45,000 search terms, and more than two million searches across the quarter. The analysis focused on how share of search shifted between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 with the aim of better understanding changes in brand consideration across the market.
The approach to search analysis included brand terms, dealer terms where the dealer name contains the OEM brand, brand combined with location, dealer, category (including electric), reviews, and close variations of these combinations. Searches related to parts and accessories, used truck listings, rental services, and general servicing or maintenance terms were excluded to focus solely on brand consideration rather than after-sales behaviour.
A Note From Our Researchers
Please note that keyword lists and data sourcing methods are continuously evolving to enhance the accuracy and depth of search volume reporting. All data is refreshed with each quarterly report, so figures within any given edition reflect the most current available snapshot. As such, some metrics may shift quarter-over-quarter as these refinements are applied.
Retain Media provides this data “as is” for informational purposes only and accepts no liability for decisions made based on this reporting. Users are encouraged to use this data as one of multiple data points in their market analysis.
Leadership Holds, but Competitive Pressure at the Top Is Real
Q1 2026 continued a pattern visible across several quarters. The brands with the strongest existing presence maintained or extended their positions, while mid-tier brands reshuffled around them. What made this quarter distinct was the narrowing at the top, where Kenworth’s share softened while Isuzu and Mercedes-Benz Trucks both recorded their highest share figures in the past four quarters.
New truck sales contracted across most segments in Q1 2026, with the Truck Industry Council noting that Middle East unrest and its effect on Australian diesel prices are placing the road freight industry under financial stress. In a tightening sales environment, consideration share carries more weight, and the brands holding or growing their share of search are better placed to capture a larger proportion of those purchases.
Kenworth still commands a clear lead, but the gap between first and second place closed meaningfully across the quarter. Isuzu’s rise to 14.0% and Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ move to 10.4% gave the top of the market a more competitive outlook than it had in Q4 2025. For dealers and OEMs monitoring brand visibility, the trend is worth watching closely as buyer attention at the top of the market becomes increasingly contested.
Below the top three, most brands held relatively stable positions, with the clearest movements coming from Volvo Trucks lifting and Mack Trucks giving back ground it had gained in late 2025. The mid-tier remains open to quarter-on-quarter repositioning, and a single strong quarter can still shift the competitive rankings.
The Most Searched Truck Brands in Australia
The Top 10
The leading trio became more entrenched in Q1 2026. Kenworth held first place at 22.7%, easing 1.1 percentage points from Q4 2025 but maintaining a lead of nearly nine percentage points over second place. Its standing as the benchmark name in Australian truck consideration remains firmly intact.
Isuzu was the strongest mover of the quarter, rising 1.4 percentage points to 14.0% and recording its highest share in the Q1 dataset, suggesting the brand has moved beyond recovering late-2025 ground and into a genuinely stronger competitive position. Mercedes-Benz Trucks returned to third place at 10.4%, up 0.8 percentage points from Q4 2025 and 1.4 percentage points above its Q2 2025 level. Taken together, the top three brands held 47.1% of all truck brand consideration this quarter, up from 45.9% late last year.
The second tier was broadly stable but not without movement. Iveco Trucks finished at 9.9%, giving back 0.3 percentage points from Q4 2025 and enough for Mercedes-Benz Trucks to move past it. The result mirrors Iveco’s Q2 2025 figure, which puts the dip in perspective as a quarterly adjustment rather than a directional change, and the brand’s position in the top four remains unchallenged.
Fuso Trucks held at 8.0% for a second consecutive quarter, stabilising below the 9.2% it recorded in Q2 last year but maintaining a firm hold on fifth place. Scania Trucks eased 0.3 percentage points to 7.2%, its fourth consecutive quarter of marginal softening. No single move has been dramatic, but the consistent direction is worth keeping an eye on as the market continues to shift.
In the lower half of the top 10, Hino and Mack told contrasting stories. Hino Trucks held at 5.8% for a second straight quarter, a consistent result that was enough to move it ahead of Mack Trucks as Mack gave back ground. Hino closed the dataset period 0.1 percentage points above where it began, a small but genuine improvement across a consistent year. Of the brands clustered in this part of the market, Mack has shown the most quarter-on-quarter variability, making it one of the more interesting names to track as the year unfolds.
Volvo Trucks lifted to 4.7%, up 0.3 percentage points from Q4 2025, making it one of the few brands in the top 10 to post a clear gain. The brand has held or grown its share in three of the last four quarters without a significant pullback, and that kind of steady presence in the consideration data tends to reflect an audience that is actively engaged rather than passively browsing.
Freightliner Trucks rounded out the top 10 at 2.8%, easing slightly from Q4 2025 but sitting marginally above its Q2 2025 level, signalling a brand that has consolidated its position rather than extended it.
How Other Players Fared
Below the top 10, the market remained highly fragmented, with only modest quarter-on-quarter movement and no brand breaking through into the upper tier.
Western Star Trucks held flat at 2.0%, preserving its position as the largest brand outside the top 10 for the third consecutive quarter. DAF Trucks eased from 1.3% to 1.2%, and UD Trucks moved from 1.2% to 1.1%, both continuing the gradual softening they have shown across several quarters.
MAN Trucks held steady at 1.1%, and International Trucks was similarly unchanged at 1.0%. Stability at this end of the market is a reasonable outcome in a quarter where attention concentrated further toward the top.
The more interesting movement came from the brands further down the ranking. Sitrak Trucks and Foton Trucks have both recorded unbroken upward trends across the current dataset, with Sitrak rising from 0.8% to 1.0% and Foton from 0.5% to 0.9%. Neither brand is closing in on the leaders, but that kind of consistent direction across every quarter of the year is a less common pattern in this part of the market.
Hyundai Trucks held stable at 0.7% overall, but recorded a 50% year-on-year increase in electric truck searches, the third-highest brand-level gain in the alternative fuel segment. For a brand with modest conventional market share, that electric search momentum suggests a buyer audience specifically evaluating Hyundai’s EV selection. Dennis Eagle was unchanged at 0.1%, consistent with every prior quarter in the dataset.
The broader takeaway from the lower tier is one of two speeds. Most brands held within a narrow band with little directional movement, while Sitrak and Foton recorded the only sustained upward trends in the group.
Movement at the Margins
The Q1 2026 top 19 ranking was unchanged from Q4 2025, with no new entrant displacing anyone at the threshold. That positional stability is consistent with the broader pattern in this part of the market, where the composition of the ranking tends to hold even as share moves beneath it. The movement that did occur was narrow and concentrated, with most of the field holding within a tight band while a small number of brands accounted for the only sustained directional momentum in the lower tier.
Notable Movers and Brands to Watch
The most significant movement in Q1 2026 came at the top, where the gap behind Kenworth narrowed. Isuzu recorded the strongest overall gain of the quarter while Mercedes-Benz Trucks moved into third place, and Kenworth’s own dip from 23.8% to 22.7% made the top of the market more competitive than it was in Q4 2025. Outside the leading group, Volvo Trucks lifted while Mack Trucks fell back, and Hino moved ahead of Mack simply by holding steady as the order adjusted around it.
Volvo Trucks is the clearest name to carry into Q2 2026. Its consideration share has built gradually across consecutive quarters, and its dominance in electric truck searches, detailed in the section below, gives it exposure to a growing pool of buyers that most competitors are not yet reaching at the same scale. The combination of both trends moving in the same direction is what sets Volvo apart heading into the next quarter.
Isuzu enters Q2 as the brand with the most consistent upward trajectory in the top five. It has recovered late-2025 ground and moved beyond it in overall consideration, while its electric search growth points to a buyer base evaluating the brand across multiple dimensions. The direction is clear, and it is building rather than protecting a position.
Electric Truck Searches Surge in Q1 2026
The following analysis draws on a subset of the same keyword dataset used to compile the brand consideration rankings above, isolating searches specifically related to electric and alternative fuel trucks.
Alternative fuel truck search activity surged in Q1 2026, pointing to a significant and accelerating shift in buyer curiosity beyond the core brand rankings. Quarter-on-quarter, total alternative fuel searches rose 71%, from more than 15,000 in Q4 2025 to over 26,000 in Q1 2026. Year-on-year, the increase was 41%.
The most striking finding is how concentrated that growth was in a single month. Electric brand searches nearly tripled between February and March 2026, rising from 5,000+ to 15,000+, a 180% increase in 30 days. Electric searches specifically grew 200% over that same window, while hybrid searches grew at a far slower rate of 57%. That separation between electric and hybrid trajectories suggests buyer interest is focusing firmly on full electric rather than interim powertrain options.
The March spike aligns with the period of acute fuel price pressure in Australia driven by Middle East unrest. When diesel costs become a significant operational concern for fleet operators, interest in electric alternatives tends to move up the research agenda. The March search data reflects exactly that dynamic, with buyers entering the consideration funnel rather than signalling immediate purchase decisions.
Volvo leads this segment decisively. The brand captured 57% of electric brand search share in March 2026, with alternative fuel volume up 88% quarter-on-quarter and 48% year-on-year. Its February-to-March growth of 206% reflects both strong existing positioning in the electric segment and a buyer base that is already informed and actively evaluating. The electric search data reinforces Volvo’s overall Q1 2026 consideration gain and suggests its upward trajectory has structural support rather than being driven by a single quarter of promotional activity.
Fuso is the standout mover. Year-on-year electric search volume rose 170%, with the February-to-March gain reaching 543%, the largest proportional jump recorded across any brand in this dataset. Combined with Fuso’s stable overall market share of 8.0%, the electric data points to a brand that may be holding steady in general consideration while building meaningfully in a fast-moving adjacent segment.
Among other brands in this set, Mercedes-Benz Trucks recorded an 81% year-on-year increase in electric-related volume. Isuzu was up 51%, Hyundai up 50%, and Hino up 10%. All of these brands saw stronger electric growth quarter-on-quarter than year-on-year, confirming that the acceleration is recent and concentrated in Q1 2026.
Kenworth recorded a more modest alternative fuel search result than most brands in this analysis, recovering slightly quarter-on-quarter, up 19% from Q4 2025. For the market leader by a considerable margin, the electric segment represents a different kind of opportunity than it does for brands further down the ranking, and how Kenworth approaches that space heading into Q2 is worth watching.
The data across both the overall brand rankings and the electric segment points to a two-speed dynamic. Brands growing in total consideration, particularly Volvo and Isuzu, are also building in alternative fuel interest. Fuso is demonstrating that electric search growth can occur independently of overall share movement. And Kenworth, the market leader by a wide margin, currently sits outside the electric momentum visible across the rest of the top 10.
What the Q1 2026 Data Means for Dealers, OEMs, and Marketers
Q1 2026 confirms a category that remains led by a small group of established brands, with meaningful movement just behind the top position, pointing to where buyer attention is shifting. The top three brands held almost half of the consideration. That concentration matters more in a contracting sales environment, where the brands holding or growing their share of search are better placed to capture a larger proportion of the transactions that do occur.
With Middle East-driven fuel price pressure placing the road freight industry under financial stress, fleet confidence is softer than it has been. That creates a specific risk for brands that allow their search visibility to ease heading into a period when buyer behaviour is already under pressure. Maintaining strong consideration share now is a practical defence of sales pipeline, not just a brand exercise.
For dealers and OEMs in the top tier, the priority in Q2 should be sustaining visibility and reinforcing consideration through strong search presence, dealer-level local content, and consistent brand messaging. Isuzu and Mercedes-Benz Trucks have both built upward momentum across consecutive quarters, and maintaining it requires continued activity rather than relying on existing brand equity.
For brands in the mid-tier, Volvo’s combination of overall share gains and electric segment leadership offers a useful reference point. The brand has built gradually rather than spiking in a single quarter, and its electric search presence now gives it exposure to a growing pool of buyers that others are not reaching at the same scale. As fuel price pressure pushes more fleet managers into the electric consideration funnel, brands that have already established visibility in that segment start Q2 with a structural advantage.
The electric search data introduces a meaningful secondary layer of competitive analysis. A brand’s overall share of consideration is still the primary metric, but the rate at which buyers are searching for alternative fuel options by brand is becoming an increasingly useful forward indicator of where attention is heading. Brands that build early visibility in this segment through relevant content, targeted search campaigns, and dealer-level electric product information are likely to capture a disproportionate share of that interest as the research funnel matures through 2026.
Trust Retain Media for Industry-Leading Insights
Q1 2026 truck market results reveal a category still led by a small group of established brands, with meaningful movement just behind the top position showing where attention is shifting. Kenworth’s continued lead, Isuzu’s strong gain, and Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ return to third place are the defining storylines from the quarter, while the broader ranking remained comparatively stable.
Against a backdrop of contracting new truck sales and rising fuel costs, the brands that built consideration share in Q1 2026 did so in a market already under pressure. The electric truck search surge, and the disparity between how different brands are positioned within it, adds a further dimension to the competitive picture that will only become more relevant across the remainder of 2026.
Keep an eye on our next quarterly update as we continue tracking how these trends develop across the Australian truck market and what they mean for brand visibility, buyer consideration, and competitive positioning.
In the meantime, download the full report for a deeper look at the Q1 2026 data, or explore our other market reports for broader insights into the Australian automotive and machinery landscape, including the caravan market, marine market, and agricultural market. To find out how Retain Media can help your brand build and convert consideration in the Australian truck market, get in touch with our experts.
