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Remarkably, the New Zealand new truck market is returning to normality – with registrations in April falling just 4.5% short of the alltime record for the month.

Following a March performance that was a new record, April’s registrations in the overall market (all trucks with a GVM over 4.5 tonnes) totalled 382, just 18 shy of 2019’s April benchmark.

That was promising, particularly in comparison to the COVID-ravaged April 2020 market (when the industry saw just 89 new trucks registered).

But to keep it in perspective – the 1501 year-to-date registrations at the end of April were still 199 down (that’s 11.7%) on the same period in the 2019 boom year, according to offi... ... 

Hard on the heels of the trans-Tasman travel bubble being confirmed by the Government, came positive signs in New Zealand’s new truck and trailer markets.

Maybe, just maybe, the industry is returning to some semblance of pre-COVID 19 normality. 

The March Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency statistics on new truck registrations (4.5 tonnes to maximum GVM) showed a promising upturn.

Not only was the 503-truck total healthily up on February (321) – and on March last year (347)….

It also improved on the 495 registrations back in March 2019 – a time when COVID 19 was still many months away from even entering our vocabulary. And that has made this March performance... ... 

COVID-19 crashed the New Zealand new truck market again in February… unsurprisingly.

There was little comfort in the fact that the 321 total of new truck registrations in the overall market (4.5 tonnes to maximum GVM) for the month was 26 up on January’s disappointing tally – and also narrowly topped February 2020’s total.

But, keeping it real, in comparison to the alltime best February sales, achieved in 2019, the February 2021 figure was 68 trucks and 17.5% behind that 389-truck milestone.

Likewise, the 616 total registrations for the first two months of this year were 11.74% behind 2020’s 698 at the same point – and almost 23.5% behind 2019’s record.

NZ Tran... ... 

New Zealand’s new truck market had a weak start to 2021 – not unexpectedly in the ongoing COVID climate of uncertainty….

But FUSO, on the other hand, had a very strong January – edging out Isuzu, the longtime New Zealand No. 1 in the overall market (trucks with a 4.5 tonnes-plus GVM), to top the registration statistics for the month.

Official NZ Transport Agency data shows that there were 295 trucks registered for the month – 23.1% down on the 384 sales in January last year.

FUSO, which was second to Isuzu in the overall market last year (but well behind – 622 sales to 978), notched up 60 registrations in January.

That was four more than it sold in the same mon... ...