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The Battle For #2 In Full Size Truck Sales

Breaking down Ram's sales increases over the last 9 years

It’s no secret that the full-sized truck market is the most hotly contested segment in the auto industry. Last year Ford sold 909,330 F-Series pickups in the United States alone. What makes that number even more impressive is that it is 323,749 trucks more than the Chevrolet Silverado which was the second highest selling truck in the United States.

  December % Calendar Year %
Brand Sales Dec ‘18 Dec ‘17 Change 2018 2017 Change
                 
Ford F-series 87772 89385 -1.80% 909330 896764 1.40%
Chevrolet Silverado Reports Quarterly Reports Quarterly Reports Quarterly 585581 585964 0.00%
Ram Pickups 60155 44907 34.00% 536980 500723 7.00%
GMC Sierra Reports Quarterly Reports Quarterly Reports Quarterly 219554 217943 0.70%
Toyota Tundra 11216 10886 3.00% 118258 116285 1.70%
Nissan Titan 4661 5582 -16.50% 50459 52924 -4.70%

Where things start to get interesting though, is the little talked about battle for second place. It is no secret that Ram wants the #2 spot in pickup truck sales and they have gotten close, real close.  The two largest full sized truck markets are the United States and Canada and when you add in the Canadian sales numbers things really start to get interesting. 

Since 2010 Ram has consistently outsold the Silverado in Canada, at times selling more than twice as many Ram pickups than Chevrolet sold Silverados. Ram has also made huge strides in the U.S market since 2009 which was the first full year of the 4th Generation Ram 1500 being on sale. In 2009 Ram sold 177,268 pickups in the U.S, compared to a record 536,980 pickups last year, a gain of 202.9%. On the other hand, Chevrolet sold 316,544 trucks in 2009 and 585,582 last year for a gain of 85%.

With the U.S and Canadian Markets accounted for Chevrolet sold 69% more trucks than Ram did back in 2009. By the end of last year, the Silverados sales lead has shrunk to just 4.17%, even with Ram taking a hard hit in the Canadian market in 2018. The Canadian market was down overall last year in part to rising interest rates and the economy which created a perfect storm for Ram sales to decline due to higher MSRPs for the 2019 Ram 1500s, lower incentives and lack of availability for most of the year. 

Ram Sales       Percentage difference to Silverado   Silverado Sales     Percentage difference to Ram
  U.S Canada Total     U.S Canada Total  
2009 177268 31408 208676 -69.00%   316544 36428 352972 69.00%
2010 199652 54267 253919 -62.20%   370135 41737 411872 62.20%
2011 244763 64297 309060 -47.43%   415130 40523 455653 47.43%
2012 312958 69255 382213 -27.30%   450609 35943 486552 27.30%
2013 355673 80248 435921 -18.80%   480414 37490 517904 18.80%
2014 439789 88521 528310 -8.20%   529755 41959 571714 8.20%
2015 451116 91195 542311 -19.30%   600544 46407 646951 19.30%
2016 487558 89666 577224 -7.38%   574876 44932 619808 7.38%
2017 500723 98465 599188 -7.63%   585864 59066 644930 7.63%
2018 536980 68120 605100 -4.17%   585582 44743 630325 4.17%

Ram is breaking their half-ton sales records with the all-new 2019 Ram 1500 and Chevrolet’s all-new 2019 Silverado 1500 is now on lots, meaning we have an exciting year to look forward to. Ram is also introducing their 2019 Ram Heavy Duty trucks at the North American International Autoshow next Monday which is due to be on sale not long after. Chevrolet has also teased their 2020 Silverado HD which is rumored to be on sale in the latter half of this year. 

Stay tuned to 5thGenRams as we track the sales race throughout the year and see if this is the year that Ram steals the second place title. 

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