Japanese commercial vehicle manufacturer Hino South Africa has announced the introduction of a new Guaranteed Future Value (GFV) Plan on the Hino 700 2841 and 2845 truck-tractor models, Hino South Africa VP Anton Falck noted during a media breakfast on January 24.

The GFV includes a three-year finance period, a 360 000 km term – 120 000 km/y – and end-of-term options to retain or return the truck.

“The customer enjoys a guaranteed future value and, at the end of the term, they can either retain the vehicle by refinancing the remaining portion or, alternatively, return the vehicle to the dealer, no strings attached,” Falck explained.

The GFV also includes a service and maintenance plan and the standard Hino Connect management system. Monthly terms start from R41 500, with future value set at 40%.

“The target market for the GFV offering is truck operators who prefer not to invest substantial amounts of capital at the outset and want an even flow of monthly expenses, against the challenges of defleeting or replacing the fleet. These are also operators who prefer to use Hino dealers for their service and maintenance,” explained Falck.

HINO 300 HYBRID

During the media event, Falck also provided an update on the Hino 300 Hybrid that was piloted for a few months late in 2023.

During the briefing, Hino revealed its global programme to reduce emissions through its use of hybrid diesel-electric powertrains in the future.

Transportation, logistics, supply chain and storage company Namlog has been operating a pilot Hino 300 Hybrid, with further requests having been made to evaluate this model in actual use.

A back-to-back comparison was made between a Hino 300 Hybrid and a normal 300-Series diesel over trips of between 100 km and 200 km in Gauteng, carrying an average load of 579 kg. This revealed a fuel and emissions saving of about 20% in favour of the hybrid model.

The Hino 300 Hybrid uses a parallel system where the engine drives the wheels through the transmission and simultaneously drives an electricity generator. When running in easy conditions, the truck can run on the electric motor alone, depending on the remaining power in the batteries as controlled by a dedicated computer.

“Hino Motors Japan and its worldwide distributor network are fully committed to carbon reduction with an ultimate objective of a zero [carbon] situation and the company is using a mix of different solutions from battery electric to hybrid, hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen as a combustible fuel. We will be part of this programme and the Hino 300 Hybrid will be our first step,” said Falck.

MARKET UPDATES

Having sold about 3 300 units in South Africa in 2023, Hino aims to increase its sales volumes by 15% this year to about 3 800 units. This in pursuit of a market share of 10% in the overall South African truck market forecast of 34 800 units this year.

“The overall truck market in South Africa grew by 9% in 2023 over 2022, going from sales of 30 149 units in 2022 to 32 907 last year. Medium and heavy truck volumes remained almost the same, while the big growth was in the extra-heavy segment, which rose by 21.5% from 15 191 units sold in 2022 to 18 458 units retailed in 2023. This meant that 56% of total truck sales in South Africa in 2023 were in this premium category,” said Falck.

“We were not a serious competitor in that market for much of 2023, but now we are pinning our sales increase on the new 700 range to boost our overall market share. The new model has been well received in the market and what is interesting is that many of the buyers are purchasing a Hino for the first time. We are forecasting to more than double our extra-heavy truck sales from the 377 units sold this year to 750 in 2024,” he added.

Hino sales in South Africa, which included the Hino 200 trucks reported as sales in the light commercial vehicle segment, totalled 3 329 units in 2023. This placed Hino South Africa in eighth place among Hino distributors around the world, with Hino selling 135 203 trucks and buses globally last year.

Hino appointed Masafumi Kawabata as the new senior executive for South Africa and Itumeleng Segage as the new Hino GM.

Meanwhile, Toyota parts operations GM Michael Soko noted that Toyota South Africa Motors’ distribution centre, the Toyota Africa Parts Centre (TAPC), is focussing on future key projects.

This includes supply chain synchronisation, high parts availability, back-order accuracy improvement, new model launches this year, warehouse basic automation and carbon emission reduction.

The TAPC manages the Hino parts supply with at least one delivery a day to each dealer and special priority given to the supply of parts for vehicle off-road orders.

Hino is a subsidiary of Toyota and produces trucks.