The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the entire automotive industry in the spring of 2020 with truck sales seeing a big decline overall. Just how bad were 2020 Q2 sales? Pretty tough for most automakers.
| 2020 Q2 Pickup Sales | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-Size Truck Sales | Q2 Sales | Last Year Q2 Sales | Quarterly Change | Year to Date | Last Year to Date | Year Over Year Change |
| Ford F-Series | 180,825 | 233,787 | -22.7% | 367,387 | 448,398 | -18.1% |
| Chevy Silverado LD HD |
120,744 89,465 31,279 |
141,426 109,930 31,496 |
-15% -18.6% -.7% |
264,442 202,390 62,052 |
255,463 194,426 61,037 |
3.5% 1.7% 4.1% |
| Ram Truck | 117,448 | 179,454 | -35% | 246,253 | 299,480 | -18% |
| GMC Sierra LD HD |
53,824 38,825 14,999 |
56,857 42,911 13,946 |
-5.4% -9.5% 7.6% |
106,833 78,666 28,167 |
97,403 74,215 23,188 |
9.7% 6.0% 21.5% |
| Toyota Tundra | 27,222 | 29,397 | -7.4% | 48,880 | 54,497 | -10.3 |
| Nissan Titan | 6,464 | 8,343 | -22.5% | 12,196 | 18,026 | -32.3% |
| Mid-Size Truck Sales | Q2 Sales | Last Year Q2 Sales | Quarterly Change | Year to Date | Last Year to Date | Year Over Year Change |
| Toyota Tacoma | 51,063 | 63,683 | -19.9% | 104,699 | 121,866 | -12.1 |
| Ford Ranger | 25,008 | 20,880 | 19.8% | 45,988 | 30,301 | 51.8% |
| Chevrolet Colorado | 19,843 | 31,669 | -37.3% | 41,273 | 65,163 | -36.7% |
| Jeep Gladiator | 19,568 | 7,129 | 174% | 34,827 | 7,252 | 380% |
| Nissan Frontier | 8,794 | 19,101 | -54.0 | 19,074 | 39,322 | -51.5% |
| GMC Canyon | 5,225 | 11,909 | -56.1% | 9,708 | 18,863 | -48.5% |
| Honda Ridgeline | 2,367 | 2,761 | -10.8% | 14,505 | 15,255 | -4.9% |
Starting off the pack, Ford‘s F-series lineup of trucks saw a big dip down 22.7% versus 2019 Quarter 2 sales. With many dealerships closed as well as factories, this was to be expected and Ford made mention early in the Spring that a significant amount of their dealerships were closed. We’d expect to see a rebound this Fall once a new 2021 Ford F150 hits the dealer lots.
Following Ford is the Chevrolet Silverado with a 15% drop in volume, yet retaining a positive year over year number.
Ram saw a big hit down 35% and is trending downward like Ford. They will likely see a surge when the new Ram Rebel TRX with its Hellcat engine gets unveiled early this Fall.
GMC follows Chevy with higher year over year while taking a quarterly hit.
Rounding out the pack, the Tundra sees a slight decline as does the Nissan Titan which was really hit with the unfortunate timing. Nissan announced a host of new changes for the 2020 Titan only to see that all become delayed due to the virus.
On the mid-size side of things for 2020 Q2 sales, the Tacoma retains its top spot out selling its nearest rival, the Ford Ranger, 2 to 1.
The Jeep Gladiator seems to have had a BIG quarter, however, this is likely more to do with finally having some volume on dealer lots versus the 2019 Q2 sales results.
Chevy’s mid-size Colorado and Canyon continue to struggle to get traction and they have announced some changes coming to the 2021 and rumors of changes for the 2023 model year. Expect those numbers to turn around.
Like the Nissan Titan, the 2020 Nissan Frontier has a new powertrain aimed to pump up sales, yet COVID-19 robbed them the opportunity to get these onto dealer lots.
Finally, the Honda Ridgeline continues to show some decline even after rather impressive growth in the 2020 Q1 sales results. With a new transmission and a market grabbing every truck they can find, we’d expect those sales to turn around.
While Q2 sales were expected to be down, the challenge remains for automakers to pull in the volume for Q3 and Q4 to deliver post gains to shareholders. Can they do it? That’s going to be THE question.
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