Vehicle Registration Exemptions - New Mexico

Every motor vehicle, manufactured home, trailer, semitrailer and pole trailer when driven or moved upon a highway and every off-highway motor vehicle is subject to registration and certificate of title except:

• Any vehicle driven or moved upon a highway in conformance with the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Code relating to manufacturers, dealers, lienholders or nonresidents;
• Any vehicle that is driven or moved upon a highway only for the purpose of crossing the highway from one property to another;
• An implement of husbandry (defined below) that is only incidentally operated or moved upon a highway;
• Special mobile equipment (defined below);
• A vehicle that is propelled exclusively by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires though not operated upon rails;
• A freight trailer (defined below) if it is:
  • Properly registered in another state;
  • Identified by a proper base registration plate that is properly displayed; and
  • Identified by other registration documents that are in the possession of the operator and exhibited at the request of a police officer;
• A freight trailer or utility trailer owned and used by:
  • A nonresident solely for the transportation of farm products purchased by the nonresident from growers or producers of the farm products and transported in the trailer out of the state;
  • A farmer or a rancher who transports to market only the produce, animals or fowl produced by that farmer or rancher or who transports back to the farm or ranch supplies for use thereon; or
  • A person who transports animals to and from fairs, rodeos or other places, except racetracks, where the animals are exhibited or otherwise take part in performances, in trailers drawn by a motor vehicle or truck of less than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating bearing a proper registration plate, but in no case may the owner of such an unregistered trailer perform such uses for hire;
• A vehicle moved on a highway by a towing service as defined in Section 59A-50-2 NMSA 1978;
• An off-highway motor vehicle exempted pursuant to Section 66-3-1005 NMSA 1978: Operated on privately held lands or:
  • Owned and operated by an agency or department of the United States, this state or a political subdivision of this state;
  • Operated exclusively on lands privately held; provided that the appropriate tax or fee has been paid in lieu of the motor vehicle registration fees;
  • Owned by nonresidents and used in this state only for organized and endorsed competition purposes; provided that the use is not on a rental basis;
  • Brought into this state by manufacturers or distributors for wholesale purposes and not used for demonstrations;
  • In the possession of dealers as stock-in-trade and not used for demonstration purposes;
  • Farm tractors, as defined in Section 66-1-4.6 NMSA 1978, special mobile equipment, as defined in Section 66-1-4.16 NMSA 1978, or off-highway motor vehicles being used for agricultural operations; or
  • Used exclusively on private closed courses, whether owned by the rider or another person; provided that, if applicable, the excise tax and registration fees have been paid and are current.

An “implement of husbandry” means every vehicle that is designed for agricultural purposes and exclusively used by the owner in the conduct of agricultural operations.

“Special mobile equipment” means a vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including but not limited to:

• Farm tractors,
• Road construction or maintenance machinery,
• Ditch-digging apparatus,
• Well-boring apparatus, and
• Concrete mixers.

A “freight trailer” means any trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer drawn by a truck tractor or road tractor, and any trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer drawn by a truck that has a gross vehicle weight of more than 26,000 pounds, but “freight trailer” does not include manufactured homes, trailers of less than one-ton carrying capacity used to transport animals or fertilizer trailers of less than 3,500 pounds empty weight.