Midsized pickups are up 8% in 2021, in an overall car market up 3%. At just over 660,000 deliveries, this is the highest volume for the class in this millennium. In Q4, midsized pickup truck sales were down 3% in a market down 21%. The class now holds 4.4% of the total US car market, up from 4.2% in 2020. This is 3.3 times lower than full-sized pickups, as this remains a relatively small segment. 
The Toyota Tacoma remains untouched by recent new launches and sets a new annual sales record to top a quarter of a million deliveries for the first time ever. Its share of the class drops slightly to 38.2%, as deliveries were down 31% in the final quarter. Its closest rival Ford Ranger drops below 100,000 deliveries with sales down 7%. The Jeep Gladiator continues to improve, selling almost 90,000 units in its third year of sales, up 16% on 2022 and passing the Chevrolet Colorado which is down 24%. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the #2 seller of the class was the Nissan Frontier, thanks to the new generation. That strong finish of the year has helped the Frontier up 65%, although that’s still below the nameplate’s average of the last 20 years, and also because it had a very weak 2020. However, if the Frontier can keep up the Q4 pace of over 22,500 deliveries in a quarter, 2022 looks set to be a record year for the Nissan. For the Honda Ridgeline, 2021 is its best year since 2007 with sales up 29% to top 40,000 units. The GMC Canyon is down 4% but lost 32% in the final quarter of the year, when it was the slowest seller in the class.
The three newcomers are also the smallest of the bunch, and a case could be made that two of them should have a small pickup class by themselves and the other one falls inbetween the midsized and full-sized class, but for now we’ll compare them here. The Ford Maverick scores the first win, with over 13,000 deliveries vs just over 10,000 for the Hyundai Santa Cruz. In fact, the Maverick was the best selling unibody pickup truck in the US in Q4 as it also outsold the Ridgeline. The Rivian R1T is the first mass-produced electric pickup truck to hit the market in November 2021, but the brand doesn’t publish its sales figures by model. They delivered 920 vehicles to customers in Q4 of 2021, of which the majority will be R1T’s, so we’ll estimate a figure of 900 here.
US midsized pickup sales 2021
| Midsized Pickup segment | 2021 | 2020 | Change | 2021 Share | 2020 Share | 2021-Q4 | 2020-Q4 | Change | |
| 1 | Toyota Tacoma | 252.520 | 238.806 | 6% | 38,2% | 39,3% | 51.889 | 75.187 | -31% |
| 2 | Ford Ranger | 94.755 | 101.486 | -7% | 14,3% | 16,7% | 22.049 | 27.148 | -19% |
| 3 | Jeep Gladiator | 89.712 | 77.542 | 16% | 13,6% | 12,7% | 18.254 | 20.552 | -11% |
| 4 | Chevrolet Colorado | 73.008 | 96.238 | -24% | 11,1% | 15,8% | 21.453 | 27.709 | -23% |
| 5 | Nissan Frontier | 60.693 | 36.845 | 65% | 9,2% | 6,1% | 22.634 | 10.558 | 114% |
| 6 | Honda Ridgeline | 41.355 | 32.168 | 29% | 6,3% | 5,3% | 10.483 | 9.056 | 16% |
| 7 | GMC Canyon | 24.125 | 25.190 | -4% | 3,7% | 4,1% | 6.155 | 9.007 | -32% |
| 8 | Ford Maverick | 13.258 | 0 | New | 2,0% | 0,0% | 12.752 | 0 | New |
| 9 | Hyundai Santa Cruz | 10.042 | 0 | New | 1,5% | 0,0% | 7.049 | 0 | New |
| 10 | Rivian R1T (est.) | 900 | 0 | New | 0,1% | 0,0% | 900 | 0 | New |
| Segment total | 660.368 | 608.275 | 9% | 173.618 | 179.217 | -3% |
Source: Manufacturers.