Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) maintained its customary lead in pickup truck sales with December sales of 87,512 units, up 2.7% from 85,211 in December of 2015. In November Ford sold 72,089 F-Series trucks following a September sales total of 65,542. For the full year, F-Series pickup sales were up 5.2% year over year at 820,799 units.
Ford’s F-Series pickups notched their 40th consecutive year as the country’s best-selling trucks and their 35th year as the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the United States.
General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Chevy Silverado sales experienced a decrease of 13.8% year over year in December to 54,272 units, while GMC Sierra sales tumbled 15.1% to 23,290 units.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.’s (NYSE: FCAU) Ram pickup sales increased 15% year over year in December to 47,556 units. For the full year, Ram sold 489,418 units, up 9% compared with 2015.
December buyer incentives remained high, but were a bit lower than November incentives at both Ford and GM. Month over month, incentives rose 5% at FCA, while dropping 3.6% at GM and 0.9% at Ford, according to industry research firm ALG. The researchers also estimated that Ford boosted its December incentives by 34% year over year, with FCA lifting its incentives by 22% and GM raising incentives 14%.
Brad Korner, general manager at industry rebate and incentive research firm AIS, said:
Automakers closed out the year with a flurry of incentive activity. Major players added or adjusted incentives to move stale inventory – small and midsize sedans as well as hybrid and electric cars – and to protect market share on high-profit SUVs and pickup trucks. General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Nissan and Hyundai were particularly aggressive in revising incentives throughout December in contrast to Toyota, Honda and Subaru, companies that generally maintain good sales and inventory levels without relying on rich incentives.
The other full-size pickups on offer in the United States are the Tundra from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and the Nissan Titan. Tundra’s sales totaled 11,556 in December (up 7.5% year over year). The Titan sold 4,396 units in December, up a whopping 332% compared with December 2015.
Toyota’s midsize Tacoma pickup sold 17,514 units in December, holding its place as the leader in this space. Sales of GM’s midsize Colorado pickup rose 19.2% to 9,431 units and sales of the GMC Canyon rose 34.9% to 4,048 in December. Nissan’s midsize Frontier pickup sold 6,069 units in December, up 6.6% year over year. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) sold 4,085 units of its all-new Ridgeline midsize pickup, up from just two in December of 2015.
In the full-size pickup segment, December sales of 212,630 vehicles from the Detroit Three pencils out to a Ford market share of 41.1% (a month-over-month dip of 0.3 points). GM’s share came in at 25.5% for the Chevy Silverado (down 0.5 points) and 11% (up 0.1 points) for the GMC Sierra. Ram’s market share totaled 22.4% (up 1.1 points).
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