Who will win Truck of the Year Australasia 2025?

Less than a month out from the Brisbane Truck Show, the contenders for the Truck of the Year Australasia 2025 are in.

This year’s ToYA contenders show us how the truck market is starting to change, and how much it is likely to change into the future.

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All of the trucks in the running for ToYA represent a process of going forward for truck buyers and at the same time meeting the criteria the judges on the award’s jury have to consider in their deliberations. When examining the four contenders that we have this year, the judges are looking at a variety of factors.

Essentially, we need to identify the truck which makes the best contribution to the standards of safety and efficiency of freight transport by road in Australasia.

Each of these trucks is on sale in both Australia and New Zealand and represent different requirements from operators, coming up with different solutions. Each brings considerable innovation to the table and are operating in new territory.

As it has done for the past three years, PowerTorque is working with NZ Trucking magazine from New Zealand to hone down the contenders to a final winner of the ToYA award, which will be presented at the Brisbane Truck Show in May.

Without further ado, here are the four finalists…

MERCEDES-BENZ EACTROS

PowerTorque test drove this newcomer to the Australian market for the November/December 2024 edition. This eActros is the first production electric prime mover on the Australian truck market. It’s introduction represents the first step in the transition across to zero emission prime movers.

The design represents a leap forward here in Australia with the introduction of an electric prime mover fitted with an e-axle, as opposed to motive power in the prime mover coming from an electric motor placed in front of a diesel powered model’s transmission in the engine bay.

You can read the full story here.

FAW JT6 550

Now we come to a truck which, to many, may not be an obvious inclusion: The FAW JK6 550 prime mover. This truck is the first entry into the Australian truck market for FAW, one of the biggest Chinese truck makers, and surprisingly, it comes in at the top of the market, with a 6×4 550hp prime mover.

This surprise entry tells us the Australian truck market is starting to change. A number of strong brands have dominated the Australian truck market and very few new brands have been introduced. However, the growing truck industry in China and the planned changes over to zero emission trucks has seen the introduction of a number of new brands from China and Korea.

We originally tested the JK6 in the September/October 2024 edition.

SCANIA 500P SUPER

There a wide range of niches and subsets in the Australian trucking industry which suit a particular kind of truck, but there’s always one niche, or group of niches, which aren’t fully served. It’s the job of the truck manufacturers to make sure they offer a wide enough range to be able to fit into as many of their customers’ pigeon holes as possible.

Scania has three cab sizes, the R, G and P until now the P Series has been denied the higher horsepower end of the Scania 13 litre engine’s rating. The cooling package capable of handling the heat output from a high power 13 would not fit under the lower cab engine tunnel.

We originally drove the 500P in the January/February 2025 edition.