More Pickup Trucks Were Sold In The U.S. Than Passenger Cars For The First Time Ever

The global crossover and SUV boom has also led to the increased popularity of pickup trucks. Nowadays, it’s common to see such vehicles on the roads of nearly every city, especially in the United States where they outsold passenger cars for the first time ever last month.

According to numbers released by market researcher Autodata Corp. and quoted by Bloomberg, the segment, which is dominated by Detroit’s Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), managed to beat regular passenger cars by more than 17,000 units.

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In April, pickups represented over 40 percent of the three companies’ sales, revealed Evercore ISI data. Sales were encouraged by 0 percent financing offers, which sometimes stretched loans as long as seven years. It’s worth noting that only 5 years ago, passenger cars outsold pickup trucks by over 500,000 units in a single month.

“Even in a pandemic, there are some offers too good to pass up”, explained Cox Automotive’s senior economist, Charlie Chesbrough. “Many of our daily tracking numbers were showing strong interest in 0 percent financing offers, as well as a lot of interest in pickup trucks.”

FCA’s CEO, Mike Manley, told investors earlier this week that the company’s inventory in the United States has started running low, especially for certain pickup trucks, adding that he expects them to outsell passenger cars again in May.

“There’s certain configurations that will be running short”, he explained. “That’s reflected in the number of dealer orders we’ve received in the last few weeks that are just waiting for our plans to restart.”