Slow rollout of new Ford Ranger and Jeep Gladiator resulted in good but not great segment growth
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Sales in the US Small Pickup segment rose by 15.0% to 298,120 in the first half of 2019, just a bit slower than the 15.9% rate at which they grew in 2018. However, now that the Ford Ranger and the long-awaited Jeep Gladiator pickup have finally hit the market their sales are bound to build up in the second half of the year – this means that by the time the year is over, growth is bound to come closer to 20%.
Note: Clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off
Highlights:
- The recently-revised Toyota Tacoma remained the undisputed segment leader, although its 5% sales growth rate was a substantial fall from the 24% growth the model registered last year, suggesting it (and, for that matter, all other models) were affected by the new entrants in the segment
- Despite losing 6% of sales both the second-placed Chevrolet Colorado and the third-placed Nissan Frontier held onto their spots, despite the latter coming under attack from the new Ford Ranger; in fact, the Ford outsold it in June and is likely to do it again later in 2019 as its sales ramp up
- It was a similar story further down, where GMC Canyon and Honda Ridgeline stayed ahead of the new Jeep Gladiator in the YTD rankings, but were handily outsold by the new model in June
Note: clicking on the model names in legend turns the display for that model on/off; data is displayed from 1990 onwards, but starts earlier – access previous years using slider on bottom