The coronavirus wreaked havoc with New Zealand’s new truck market in April – the Level 4 state of emergency, unsurprisingly, reducing monthly registrations to historic lows.

The widespread expectation that this unprecedented closedown of the country to stop the global COVID-19 pandemic taking a devastating hold here, came to pass – with a vengeance.

Just 89 new trucks in the overall market (all trucks with a GVM of 4.5 tonnes or more) were registered….and trailermakers put a mere eight units on the road.

The scale of the savaging that the heavy commercial vehicle market took in April is revealed by a comparison of the figures with those for the same month last year – the truck registrations down 311 units and 77.8%....while the eight trailer regos represented a 93.6% drop on last April’s 126.

Year-to-date truck registrations at the end of April stood at 1134 – a third down on the 1700 for the first four months of 2020.

The trailer market’s YTD total stood at 318 – 179 (and 36%) down on the same point last year. 

In the overall truck market, Isuzu (270/21) continued to clearly lead the 2020 figures with 270 registrations – moving further ahead of second-placed FUSO (181/9) and third-placed Hino (131/7). 

However, Volvo registered a standout 27 trucks to become April’s top performer – taking its 2020 registrations total to 109 and going clear of fifth-placed Scania (82/6),  Iveco (71/4), Mercedes-Benz (54/7), Kenworth (50/1), UD (43/2) and DAF (31/2).

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment, Fiat (63/0) held its lead, although it had no registrations for the month. Mercedes-Benz (30/3) was the only other brand to register a truck in this segment in April. Ford (11/0) remained third. 

In the 4.5-7.5t division, FUSO (74/5) held onto its lead (just!) over Isuzu (73/8), with Iveco (36/0) retaining third. Hino (22/3) remained in fourth position, while Mercedes-Benz (14/1) went ahead of Foton (13/0). 

In the 7.5-15t class, Isuzu (123/5) retained the significant lead it had already built in the first three months. FUSO (42/3) remained second, ahead of Hino (35/3), Iveco (12/3), UD (4/2), Foton (2/0) and Mercedes-Benz (2/1).

In the 15-20.5t GVM category, Hino (24/0) continued to lead from FUSO (13/0) and UD (12/0), in second and third. Scania (7/0) held fourth – but only by one thanks to Mercedes-Benz (6/2) registering two trucks in April…while MAN (2/1) sold one.

In the tiny 20.5-23t GVM division there were no registrations – thus Hino (8/0) continued to lead from FUSO (4/0) and Freightliner (1/0).

Volvo’s 27 registrations in the 23t-max GVM premium division were just three trucks shy of its March sales – that mere 10% reduction remarkable since others in the top 10 lost anything between 46% and 100% of their March registrations.

So Volvo extended its segment lead over Scania (75/6) with 109 YTD registrations. Isuzu (69/8) was third, while the next six held their March places, with Kenworth (50/1) in fourth, ahead of FUSO (48/1), Hino (42/1), Mercedes-Benz (32/3), UD (27/0) and DAF (27/2). MAN (21/2) edged ahead of Iveco (20/1) for 10th.

With trailer manufacturers forced to close during the Level 4 lockdown, unsurprisingly only three managed to register new vehicles – Freighter improving from 10th to seventh with its five regos, Domett with two and TMC one.

Market leader Patchell (38/0) retained its YTD leadership, followed by Fruehauf (31/0), MTE (28/0), Roadmaster (27/0), Domett (22/2), TMC (20/1) and Freighter (14/5). 

Completing the top 10 were TES (12/0) and Transport Trailers and Transfleet (both 11/0).