Sales of full sized pickup trucks in the US are down 1% in the first three quarters of 2021, trailing the overall market due to supply shortages. With just over 1.66 million sales in the first nine months of the year, this is the third-largest class in the United States, after compact crossovers and midsized crossovers. Its share is shrinking to 14.2%, from 16.1% in the same period of 2020. In Q3, large pickup truck sales were down 21% in an overall market down 13%.
If traditional class leader Ford F-Series was under serious threat from its two main domestic rivals in the second quarter, America’s long-time best seller has put its challengers back in place in Q3, selling about 50,000 more than each of them and opening a gap of more than 100,000 deliveries year-to-date. Still, the F-Series is down 9% on last year, whereas the RAM Pickup is up 8% and the Chevrolet Silverado sees stable sales. The Silverado outsold the RAM in Q3 by 1,300 units but it’s still stuck in third place, over 20,000 sales off the #2 spot. GM is still the top selling manufacturer of full-sized pickup trucks in the USA thanks to the GMC Sierra, up 9% on last year. This is great news for GM’s bottom line as the GMC models demand higher transaction prices thanks to the Denali and AT4 versions at the top of the line-up. The Toyota Tundra has just been redesigned for the first time in almost 15 years and promises to take a larger chunk of the full-sized pickup truck pie from its domestic rivals. At least it has already won the biggest grille challenge. It will be interesting to see if the Tundra is able to attract more buyers away from the Detroit-3. Surprisingly, the smallest player in the class is also the fastest growing at +17%, as the Nissan Tital appears to benefit from low availability of its rivals. In an unusual market, the most brand-loyal customers suddenly turn out to be less loyal than they appear.
US large pickup sales 2021 Q1-Q3
| Large Pickup segment | 2021 – Q1-Q3 | 2020 – Q1-Q3 | Change | 2021 Share | 2020 Share | |
| 1 | Ford F-series | 534.831 | 589.034 | -9% | 32,2% | 35,1% |
| 2 | Ram Pickup | 434.772 | 402.410 | 8% | 26,1% | 24,0% |
| 3 | Chevrolet Silverado | 414.389 | 415.740 | 0% | 24,9% | 24,8% |
| 4 | GMC Sierra | 191.186 | 174.645 | 9% | 11,5% | 10,4% |
| 5 | Toyota Tundra | 65.013 | 76.814 | -15% | 3,9% | 4,6% |
| 6 | Nissan Titan | 22.772 | 19.403 | 17% | 1,4% | 1,2% |
| Segment total | 1.662.963 | 1.678.046 | -1% |
Source: Manufacturers.