Sales of SUVs and pickups increase massively over past decade squeezing out saloons and hatchbacks
This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, but sales of trucks and SUVs have massively increased in United States of America over the past 10 years, whilst market share for saloons and hatchbacks has been dramatically shrunk. No wonder Ford of US is switching over entirely to SUVs (apart from Mustang – the world’s best-selling sportscar).
From 2010 to September 2019, 14.6% of new vehicle sales in the United States have been pickup trucks according to a report by JATO Dynamics. That compares to a pickup market of approximately just 3.7% globally over the same period.
The Ford F-150 has been the biggest seller with over 5.2 million built. Interestingly whilst the most number of pickups were sold in the US, the largest market share secured by pickup trucks was actually in neighbouring Canada at 18.2%.
Donald Smith, Vice President Sales & Marketing at JATO, commented: “Americans have been able to transform a work vehicle into a fashionable and semi-luxury product that appeals to more consumers than ever before, and the recent Tesla Cybertruck is a good example of this.”
And this is despite the fact that prices for pickups in the past decade have increased more than other any other segment. For example, pickups from the 2019 model year had an average base MSRP of $44,039, an increase of 35.1% from 2010. In comparison, over the same period, the best- selling body type, SUV, saw an increase of just 16.4%.
Whilst the average engine size in pickups decreased from 5.0 to 4.9 litres, there were improvements seen in both average payload allowance (827kg vs. 992kg) as well as average combined mpg (14.6mpg vs. 17.8mpg).
Wonder if we’ll start seeing more American Trucks in the UK soon. See my Least Likely Automotive Predictions for 2020.
Brown Car Guy 
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