GM Captures a Larger Pickup Truck Market Share than Ford During the First Half of the Year
Thanks to both its midsize and full-size trucks, GM currently has a larger pickup market share than any of its rivals, although upcoming midsize models could challenge that supremacy
The diversity of GM’s truck lineup has helped it to succeed
For more than 40 years, the Ford F-150 has held the title of America’s best-selling pickup truck. Still, customers seeking a midsize truck model from Ford are currently out of luck.
That’s where GM’s pickup truck advantage comes into play. GM not only offers the full-size Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, but the midsize Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon as well.
In fact, it is the diversity of GM’s lineup that had allowed it to capture the largest market share of the pickup truck segment.
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So far this year, GM has sold a total of 478,671 pickup trucks, a 34 percent market share of that particular vehicle segment. This represents a 12 percent gain compared to its market share from a year ago.
Ford, on the other hand, only manged to sell 451,138 pickup trucks during the first half of 2018. While this is a market share gain of 5 percent for Ford, it means that the automaker currently possesses a 32 percent market share for pickup trucks, 2 percent less than GM.
“On a volume basis, we’ve sold more pickups than the F-series over the past four years in a row and that continues through this year,” explained Jim Cain, a GM spokesman.
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Last year, GM ended up selling a total of 948,909 pickup trucks. Ford finished the year with 896,764 F-Series vehicles sold.
When only full-size trucks are considered, Ford has a market share of 39 percent. By comparison, GM’s full-size truck market share currently sits at 33.9 percent.
Chevy’s sales strategy is out with the old and in with the new
One reason for the rise in pickup truck sales for GM is an assortment strong incentives for older truck models. As GM prepares to introduce the new generation of its Silverado and Sierra vehicles, it is currently trying to free up dealership lots of outgoing older models.
GM isn’t the only automaker preparing to clear out inventory of old pickup truck models. Ram is offering similar discounts as it introduces a new generation of the Ram 1500.
Unlike GM, Ram’s market share of the pickup truck segment actually declined during the first half of the year. Ram has sold a total of 233,539 pickup trucks during the first six months of the year, resulting in a market share decline of 7 percent. As the market share of both GM and Ford rose during this same period, analysts suspect that GM is drawing customers away from the Ram brand, rather than from Ford.
2019 Ram 1500 production is off to a rough start
While GM may be enjoying its dominance throughout the pickup truck segment at the moment, that supremacy is set to be challenged in the near future. 2019 will see the introduction of several midsize pickup truck models.
Perhaps most alarmingly for GM, Ford will introduce its 2019 Ford Ranger model early next year. It has been some time since Ford has carried a smaller pickup truck in its lineup, and the new Ranger could very well draw customers away from GM vehicles like the Colorado and Canyon.
The Ford Ranger could really shake things up for the midsize truck segment
Fiat Chrysler is set to introduce a midsize pickup model of its own with the yet-unnamed Jeep pickup truck model. There are even rumors of an upcoming midsize Ram truck model, set to be added to the Ram brand sometime during the next few years.
For now, GM is one of the only automakers to offer three classes of trucks to consumers. As that is set to change starting in 2019, the American automaker may have to adopt new strategies to stay ahead of its competitors and maintain its higher market share of the pickup truck segment.
News Source: Detroit Free Press
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