The new truck and trailer registration data for March confirms a slow first quarter of sales activity for the New Zealand market.

The overall market figures for March show a very similar trend to February 2025 with numbers continuing to trend well down on the first quarter of last year.

Total new truck registrations (4.5t GVM and above) for Q1 of 2025 are 917 units, which is 38% down on the 1480 registrations in the same period last year. The monthly figure for March 2025 of 307 units is a decrease of 42.8% on 537 registrations in March 2024.

The trailer market is performing much the same, with the YTD registration total of 259 units being a 36.7% decrease on 408 for Q1 in 2024. And 90 new trailer registrations for March is down 29% from last year’s monthly total of 128.

Isuzu still sits in the number one spot in the truck market with 156 sales YTD, although at the same time last year Isuzu had sold 300 units. Hino is performing strongly to hold second position with 133 registrations, which is actually an increase from 131 sales in the same period last year and brings a move up from fourth ranking in Q1 of 2024.

Behind Isuzu and Hino in the 4.5t to maximum GVM truck market, the March figures now show Fuso (131/52) still ahead of Scania (110/35), Kenworth (65/18), Iveco (62/18), DAF (38/12), and Mercedes-Benz (36/10) all retaining their positions month on month while UD (29/5) and Foton (29/11) are now tied for tenth position.

In the 3.5-4.5t crossover segment, LDV (78/28) holds the top spot ahead of Fiat (62/14), Mercedes-Benz (35/9), Ford (21/7), Volkswagen (20/9), Renault (7/2) and Iveco (6/3).

Isuzu (60/20) is the clear leader in the 4.5-7.5t market segment ahead of Fuso (38/15), Iveco (36/10), Hino (21/8), Foton (20/6), Mercedes-Benz (19/6) and Volkswagen (18/5).

The 7.5-15t segment is also led by Isuzu (56/25) ahead of Hino (48/10), Fuso (45/13), Iveco (11/3) and Foton (9/5). 

In the small 15-20.5t category Hino (16/4) is the leader followed by Fuso (8/6), UD (4/2) and Iveco (1/0).

In the ever-shrinking 20.5-23t segment were no registrations in the month of March.

Scania registered 35 new units in the premium 23t-to-maximum GVM category during March to lift its Q1 total to 107 registrations YTD. While it’s well below last year’s 168 registrations in the same period, Scania’s share of the segment has grown to 23.4% (up from 21.9% in Q1 of 2024).

Kenworth (65/18) ranks second and Volvo (50/20) is third. Hino (44/20) moves into fourth ahead of Japanese rivals Isuzu (40/13), and Fuso (39/18) followed by DAF (38/12). UD (24/3) remains in eighth ahead of Mercedes-Benz (14/4) and Iveco (14/5) who are tied in ninth to round out the top-10 in the premium category.

Fruehauf (40/14) continues to hold the top spot in the trailer market, slightly down on last year’s 48 registrations for Q1.

Patchell (24/13) had a good month with 13 registrations in March, moving back into second position. Transport Trailers (23/8) moves into third ahead of Domett (20/7) and Roadmaster (15/6). TES (11/4) moves up to sixth ahead of TMC (10/1) and  Transfleet (10/4) now tied in seventh ahead of M.T.E (9/2) and Jackson Enterprises (8/4) to round out the top-10.