BREAKDOWN: 2020 Full-Size Pickup U.S Sales:

Another year has passed, and we now have the sales numbers from all the full-size truck manufacturers. Many will remember that last year Ram stole the second place sales position from the Chevrolet Silverado for the first time, and just a few weeks ago, I wrote about how close Ram and Chevrolet were after Q3 2020.

Coming into the fourth quarter of this year, Ram was trailing Chevrolet by just 7,557 trucks while outselling the Silverado by 10,632 units that quarter. We knew it was going to be a tight race to the finish.

Ram is currently running a three-truck strategy, Ram 1500 Classic, all-new Ram 1500 DT, and Ram Heavy Duty, while other manufacturers are running a single half-ton line along with their heavy-duty lines. What makes the Ram 1500 Classic unique is that it offers up a truck with half-ton capability at a midsized truck price, which makes sense as Ram doesn’t currently have a midsized pickup, missing out on that market that Ford, GM, Toyota, and Nissan are battling in.

Fourth-quarter sales were interesting, to say the least, with the venerable Ford F-Series down 15.2% as Ford began to launch the all-new 2021 F-150, while the Toyota Tundra made a large 23.4% gain over Q4 2019.

The Silverado climbed 9.9% over Q4 2019 while the GMC Sierra gained 14 percentage points compared to the year earlier. Even the oft-forgotten about Nissan Titan gained 15.3% but remained a bit player in the market. Ram truck sales were down 7% compared to Q4 2019. A contributing factor would be supply limitations on the Ram 1500 Classic as the Warren Truck plant where most Classics are built was down for over three months to prepare for the upcoming Jeep Grand Wagoneer. 

In the end, Ram was not able to close that 7,557 unit gap, instead Chevrolet managed to increase their sales lead to 30,418 units on the back of a strong quarter. Both GM trucks had a strong year overall as they outpaced the market, being the only brands to post-sales gains for the year. The Silverado saw a sales gain of 3.2%, while the GMC Sierra saw the largest percentage gain, up 8.9% compared to the year prior. 

Ford F-series sales were down 109,104 units or 12.2% for the year, Ram was down 70,018 units or 11%, the Toyota Tundra was down 2,470 units, and Nissan’s Titan was down 16.1% to 26439 units for the year, or about as many trucks as Ram sold in 2.5 weeks last quarter. 

This year should be an interesting one to watch with Ford’s new F-150 on the scene, along with looming refreshes for both the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. A new Toyota Tundra is also expected to launch this year, and Nissan has recently announced the Titan will be discontinued after the 2021 model year in Canada.