It was nearly a three-figure sales month for Isuzu Trucks in April 2016 but not being able to get a couple of trucks out of the bodybuilding workshop saw the Japanese manufacturer record 98 new vehicle registrations.
This pleasing result follows Isuzu Trucks recording 80 new registrations in April 2015 and 53 in April 2014.
While the truck market overall was down nearly 10% year on year in April 2016, Isuzu Trucks was up 25% year on year in light duty (3500-9000kg GVM) truck registrations.
Isuzu Truck New Zealand General Manager Colin Muir says the market is tracking in the right direction, with this month’s decline in registration numbers being less than the declines in January, February, and March.
He is confident in the company’s prediction that the overall new truck market for 2016 will be 4 to 8% down on the total for 2015.
“We’re chuffed with our performance in light duty trucks for April, the fact that we have outsold our combined major competitors shows a massive market confidence in that product range (N-Series),” says Muir.
“It’s fantastic that we are the preferred of choice in the light duty market,” he says.
However, the Japanese truck distributor saw a 12% decrease in medium duty (9001-23,000kg GVM) year on year and 23% decline in heavy duty (23,001+kg GVM) registrations year on year.
Muir is philosophical about being so close to three digits last month, commenting that the body builders are still “chokka” with demand for new truck builds not ceasing.
“Dealer inquiry for new trucks is still high,” says Muir. “On one day more than two weeks ago, the entire Isuzu dealer network signed up 69 orders in one day across all three truck categories.”
Muir comments that the majority of those 69 orders received in April were for light duty trucks as opposed to medium duty and heavy duty.
Hino Distributors saw a much improved April 2016 registration figure, growing from 41 units in April 2015 to 73 last month while Mitsubishi Fuso saw a slight decline from 51 registrations in April 2015 to 45 last month.
Volvo Trucks saw a marked year on year decline with registrations falling from 46 units in April 2015 to 27 last month; Fiat saw a small increase from 13 units to 19.
For the month of April, Isuzu Trucks held 24.7% of the total market; Hino Distributors took 18.4% market share, and Mitsubishi Fuso held 11.4% market share followed by Volvo Trucks on 6.8%.
Year to date truck registrations of 1513 units is slightly down on the 1540 units recorded in the previous corresponding period.
Total registrations of 396 units for April was a 13.5% increase over 349 units in the previous corresponding period.
