The Traton Group, Volkswagen Group’s heavy commercial vehicle subsidiary, has reported a slightly positive sales result for Q2 2025. A total of 80,000 vehicles were sold, compared to 79,000 units in Q2 2024, but the first half of 2025 stays in the red, and the market remains uncertain, not just in the US.

Traton Group is the parent company of the brands Scania, MAN, International Motors (formerly Navistar), and Volkswagen Truck & Bus. It’s one of the largest heavy commercial vehicle manufacturers, operating globally.

Difficult start to the year

After a reasonably stable 2024, it seems like Traton is facing a more difficult 2025. Especially in the first quarter of this year, the company saw 10% lower sales compared to last year, with 73,100 units sold (Q1 2024: 81,100).

The second quarter was more positive: 80,000 units sold (Q2 2024: 79,000), or an increase of just over 1 percent year-on-year. That takes the H1 2025 result up to 153,100 units sold, compared to 160,100 units in H1 2024, a decrease of 4%.

Uncertainty in Brazil and the US

Most of the drop comes from Scania, which only sold 46,800 vehicles in the first half of 2025, compared to 52,300 units in H1 2024 (-10%).

The reason, according to Traton, is the challenging market conditions in Brazil, characterized by elevated dealer stocks, rising interest rates, and high inflation. In contrast, sister brand MAN is showing stable results, thanks to a good sales momentum in Europe.

Volkswagen Truck & Bus is also being affected by the weak market in Brazil, but a strong first-quarter result means that the brand is still up 6% compared to last year (24,800 units sold in H1 2025, compared to 23,400 in 2024).

International Motors, meanwhile, is facing uncertainty in the US market, due to import tariffs and a poor economic outlook. Q2 2025 saw a 10% increase compared to last year, but Q2 2024 had been affected by a fire at a supplier’s plant. In total, International is still down by 2% in H1 2025.

Electric market share is still marginal

Of note is that the market share of Traton’s electric vehicles is still marginal. Of the 80,000 cars sold in Q2 2025, only 630 were electric – and that’s still a 117% increase compared to 2024.

Most of the electric vehicles sold come from MAN, which has both electric heavy trucks (eTGS and eTGX) and lighter distribution trucks (eTGL) in its range.