What a difference a year makes! This time 12 months ago, Recently Registered was all about the New Zealand new truck market’s just-completed recordbreaking year.

The new benchmark from 2019 saw the overall market (trucks with a GVM above 4.5 tonnes) reach 5314 sales – 105 more than 2017’s former alltime record.

Then came COVID-19 – throwing 2019’s record sales into sharp relief. That, of course, is no surprise – it’s been a matter of awaiting the official NZ Transport Agency registration statistics for November and December to see just how bad it had been.

The answer is….it was, officially, the new truck industry’s worst year since 2016. In the overall market it amounted to a 23% crash in sales year on year.

The new trailer market was, of course, also hit hard – registrations dropping by 18%, from 2019’s record 1520, to just 1241 in 2020. That’s 28% below 2018’s alltime best 1714 sales.

Even within this downturned market some managed a positive year – Scania, for instance, actually increasing both its sales and its market share, while a number of others were down on registrations but up in terms of market share.

Isuzu was one of the latter – achieving a slight improvement (from 23.7-24.0%) while continuing its standout streak as the No. 1 truck make on the NZ market….for the 20th consecutive year! 

Its sales slumped from 1261 in 2019 to 978 in 2020, but it finished the year well clear of repeat runner-up FUSO, which notched-up 622 sales for 15.2% of the market – a small improvement on its 14.94% in 2019.

Hino again held third place for the year, with 555 sales and a 13.6% share, compared to 711 and 13.38% in 2019.

Iveco moved up from sixth in 2019 to fourth in 2020 – falling just two shy of its 294 sales in 2019, while improving its share from 5.53% to 7.20%.

Fifth-placed Scania moved up from ninth-equal in 2019 (with 239 sales and a 4.5% share) – selling 287 trucks, for 7.0% of the market.

All but one of the makes in the bottom half of the top 10 lost ranking, registration numbers and share. Mercedes-Benz, with 250 sales and 6.1%, dropped from fourth to sixth, Volvo slipped from fifth to seventh, with 224 and 5.5%. Kenworth, with 158 sales and 3.9% was down one place, in eighth.

DAF was the odd one out: It remained ninth, its sales down from 239 to 156 and its share down (to 3.8%). UD (8th in 2019, with 260 sales and 4.89%) completed the top 10, with 143 sales and 3.5%.

In November and December, Isuzu (978/165) increased its 2020 overall market lead on the rest, with FUSO (622/128) and Hino (555/104) holding their places in second and third respectively. 

Iveco (292/56) had a strong finish to the year to overtake Scania (287/37) for fourth place, while Mercedes-Benz (250/53) overtook Volvo (224/10) for sixth with its end-of-year sales push. 

In the crossover 3.5-4.5t GVM market segment, Fiat dominated for most of 2020, and registered 79 in November/December to seal the deal – its 316 2020 sales amounting to well over half of the market! Mercedes-Benz (111/32) was way back….and in turn held a huge margin on third-placed Renault (34/6) and Chevrolet (30/0).

It was tight at the top of the 4.5-7.5t GVM sector, with Isuzu (290/51) just one registration ahead of FUSO (289/66). Iveco (159/30) was third for the year, followed by Hino (114/22) and Mercedes-Benz (87/31)

In the 7.5-15t segment, Isuzu (431/67) extended its runaway lead on Hino (159/34) and FUSO (123/23). Well behind were Iveco (50/10) and Foton (29/9)

In the 15-20.5t division, clear leader Hino (98/17) actually improved on its 2019 performance (when it sold 89 trucks). FUSO (47/8) was second, ahead of UD (33/10) and Mercedes-Benz (23/9).

In the tiny 20.5-23t category Isuzu (34/1) continued its small lead margin over 2019 No. 1 Hino (29/2). FUSO (16/4) was third.

In the premier 23t-maximum GVM class, Scania (270/35) easily took the best-seller honours for the year – comfortably ahead of second-placed Volvo (224/10) as it completed a big year-on-year improvement, with a 14.9% segment share. In 2019 it was sixth – with an 8.8% share and 216 trucks sold. In 2018 it sold 147 trucks for a 5.84% share.

In retaining its 2019 runner-up spot, Volvo (224/10) made a small increase in its YOY market share – up from 11.9% to 12.4%.

Isuzu, last year’s heavyweight division No. 1, had a big closer to 2020, with 44 registrations carrying it to 212 for the year – still not enough to lift it above third. 

Kenworth (158/21) – third last year – was fourth in 2020, withstanding a late challenge from Hino (155/29), which saw it close to within three.

In the last two months, FUSO (147/27) overtook DAF (142/21) and Mercedes-Benz (134/12) for sixth for the year, while UD (100/13) and Iveco (66/13) completed the segment’s top 10. 

The heavyweight division’s 1813 total sales for the year amounted to a 26.4% drop on 2019’s 2464 registrations – and 27.9% down on 2018’s benchmark 2515 sales.

In the trailer market, in 2020 Patchell easily notched-up its 11th consecutive year as No. 1 – with 131 sales and a 10.6% market share. It did lose 23.4% of its 2019 volume and 0.7% of its market share, but it was still 23 sales ahead of its nearest rivals.

Fruehauf (108/18) threw down a late challenge to second-placed Domett, registering 18 trailers in the last two months of the year – good enough to tie with Domett as runners-up. That was a one-place improvement for Fruehauf compared to 2019 – and a three-place year-on-year jump for Domett, which also increased its market share by 1.8%, to 8.7%. 

Roadmaster (99/14) and last year’s runner-up MTE (94/12) – both of whom slightly improved their market share – took fourth and fifth places respectively…while Transport Trailers (71/13) was sixth.

TMC (65/10), Transfleet (51/10) and TES (46/9) each repeated their 2019 7th, 8th and 9th places respectively, while Freighter (45/4) improved one spot to complete the top 10.