Vehicle registrations in New Zealand are down by roughly 2.7% so far this year after abating somewhat in 2018 when compared to figures reported in 2016 and 2017, according to a report from Dataforce.

Over the prior year, registrations increased by only 1.2% and the aforementioned decline of 2.7% indicates a less dynamic market demand, according to Dataforce.

Vehicle preference in the market leans heavily toward SUVs and pickups; 67.5% of all new car registrations were within those two segments in 2018 coming from a share of 49.1% in 2014. This combined share even rose to 71.3% considering the registrations of the first four months of 2019.

Specifically in the fleet market, pickups held a larger share (42.2%) than SUVs (30.9%).