Class 8 Orders Skyrocket in December 2025
It has been a while since we have used that word in the title of an article, “skyrocket.” It was commonplace after the dog days of the COVID-19 Pandemic for the trucking industry to kick back into high gear as months upon months of demand came crashing to dealerships all at once. Now a similar instance has happened, for an entirely different reason, and the verb “skyrocket” is once again justified.
Details
ACT Research reports that preliminary Class 8 orders for December 2025 totaled 42,700 units, an increase of 118% compared to November 2025 and a 16% increase from December 2024.
The presumed reason for this, however, is not due to a cascade of demand flowing in all at once as it did in late 2020 and early 2021, but rather trucking companies preparing for a new slew of regulations.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently set to place higher nitrogen oxide emission standards on model year 2027 engines. As such, trucking companies are lining up to buy 2026 model years, the latest ones that will be grandfathered into avoiding these regulations, hoping to not have to deal with the higher price as the costs for following these regulations are passed onto the consumer. Even with the transition to a new presidential administration from when the nitrogen oxide emission standards were put into place, the EPA is still mostly going through with them.
“A firmer economic foundation, increasingly aged fleets, and the certainty of higher costs and new technologies in 2027 were the impetus, in our opinion, for the sudden change of heart,” said Carter Vieth, research analyst at ACT Research.
Considering the average age of a truck on the road today is about 14.2 years, Vieth’s words carry weight to them.
Conclusion
While the price of new trucks is expected to go up soon due to new regulations, the most basic law of economics may also come into play. With demand for 2026 being so high it is possible that their prices will rise to reflect that, and demand for 2027 vehicles becoming so low that their prices will decrease to reflect that, to the point where a 2027 vehicle may wind up being cheaper after all.
Crazier things have happened in the trucking industry. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a period where used vehicles were appreciating in value at a rate faster than depreciation: you could buy a new 2020 truck, drive it for two years, and sell it for more than you bought it for. Such is the world of economics with all of its intricacies.
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