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New Zealand’s heavy truck sales had another solid month in May – although still well below alltime record level…as the effects of COVID-19 continued.

With 403 May registrations, the overall truck market (4.5 tonnes to maximum GVM), was 22.2% down on 2019’s record-breaking 518 sales for the same month.

The May performance pushed the year-to-date registration total out to 1905 registrations – compared to 2218 at the same point in 2019. That’s a 14.1% drop.

The contest to be No. 1 make for the year in the overall market (above 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass) tightened up in May – with FUSO outselling longtime market leader Isuzu for the month...and closing to within five... ... 

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... ...