This may not be a question which will be front of mind for many truck buyers, but when will the new DAF models arrive in Australia? In recent years, it has taken a long time for European, and some American, brands to introduce the latest technology and design on the trucks they sell in Australia.
We saw the new Actros released in Europe back in 2011, but it did not arrive here until 2016, it was five years from European launch to selling them to Aussie customers. Volvo can also be quite tardy, with the new look FM models only arriving here in Australia this year.
Scania seems to have an average time gap, around the two year mark, from European launch to Australian. The Iveco S-Way has been on the roads of Europe for some time, but whether it gets launched next year is still only the subject of rumours, no definite plans seem to be in place.
MAN have also had a track record of slow processes around adapting a European truck to Aussie conditions. The length of time involved appears to have limited the brand’s penetration into our market.
The American arm of Daimler Trucks, Freightliner originally launched the Cascadia model in the US in 2007. The design was significantly upgraded in 2013, but it took until 2019 for that upgraded model to make it to Australian shores.
Although the Mack Anthem was unveiled in the US in 2017, it wasn’t until 2020 that the first version of the new truck designing system arrived in Australia.
DAF models have consistently taken quite a while to make it to Australia from Europe. In fact, there is always a delay but some models seem to take longer than others.
This model change may well be more important than some of those earlier upgrades, as the latest models represent a real step-change in truck design. Not only is the new cab seeing fuel consumption lowered substantially, but the latest electronic architecture means all of the latest hi-tech safety system can be offered to the market.
Those players who sell well in Australia are already up to that level of technology, offering stuff like Autonomous Emergency Braking and pro-active lane keeping, alongside powerful on-board telematics. These kinds of offerings are becoming a more attractive proposition, especially to bigger fleets.
So, perhaps the question should be, how long can DAF afford to be without the latest you beaut models in Australia?
