While well down on the financial year-ending 310 units of March – April’s heavy truck registrations showed the market is still healthy.
Year-on-year registrations for the total market for vehicles over 3500kg GVM were up 19.6% in April to 232 units against 194 a year ago.
Traders AutoTalkDIESEL spoke to show the general consensus seems to be that the truck market continues to grow in health, following the trend set by new cars, signalling a growing confidence in the New Zealand economy.
Maarten Durent, general manager of Southpac Trucks, was very positive about his company’s past month.
“We were very strong on new and used, and not from any one sector – it was a very broad selection,” says Durent. “I’ve been watching the RUC mileages amping up rapidly, so things are still growing, it’s a bit like pre-GST days.”
Other makes experienced similar success over April, including Volvo, with sales manager Clive Jones, of Volvo Truck & Bus Motor Truck distributors saying: “It’s been a record for us in recent months – we’re very pleased.
“it’s been very, very good, a very successful month. Long may it last.”
Colin Muir of Isuzu trucks says,:“We had a good month mostly. We beat all of our targets and things are growing, so we’re very happy.”
For the overall truck market, Isuzu was the leading brand, up 62.1% to 47 units, for a 20.3% share of the market.
Volvo was second on 33 vehicles, up 94.1% for a 14.2% market share, followed by Hino on 20 units, up a quarter for 12.9% of the market.
Just behind was Mitsubishi Fuso on 29 trucks – up 11.5% for 12.5% of the market – followed by Scania on 12 units, down 20% for a 5.2% share.
Segments:
3501-12,000kgs
The lighter end of the truck market went against the trend in April, down 6.8% year-on-year to 82 units for 35.35 of the total market.
Isuzu lead the sector, up 75% to 28 unit, for a 24.1% share.
Second for the month was Hino and Mitsubishi Fuso on 11 vehicles, each, down 21.4% and up 10% respectively for a 13.4% share each.
12,001kgs and over
Heavy trucks again set the pace, with registrations of trucks over 12,000kg GVM up 51.7% to 135, claiming 58.25% of the total market.
Volvo again was a strong player, up 120% to 33 sales for 24.4% of the market.
Isuzu was second on 19, up 46.2% for a 24.4% market share, followed by Hino on 18 units, up 80% for a 13.3% slice.
Buses
The bus market fell year-on-year to 15 units, down 11.8% for just 6.5% of the heavy trade.
Mitsubishi Fuso was lead brand on seven units, down 22.2%, followed by Scania on four and Alexander Dennis on three.
Light commercial vehicle April sales of 1618 units were up by 266 units (20%)
compared to April 2011. Year-to-date, light commercial sales are virtually
identical to 2011’s levels.
Toyota was also the top selling brand amongst light commercial vehicles with sales of 420 units (26% share) followed by Ford with sales of 331 units (20% share) and Nissan with sales of 219 units (14% share).
Ford Ranger proved to be both the best selling commercial vehicle and best selling vehicle overall with sales of 279 units. This was just ahead of Toyota Hilux which recorded sales of 278 units, followed by Toyota Hiace with sales of 130 units.
Ian Stronach of the Motor Trade Association says: “Models like Toyota Hilux have benefited from much improved availability, and the introduction of new models like Mazda’s CX-5 have also given the market something of a shot in the arm. Having said that, April’s good performance is less of a surprise than it might previously have been.
“We’ve seen strength across the board all year, and based on the market’s performance to date, this could well end up being a very respectable year for new vehicle sales.”
