Driving By Numbers: We look at the booming Canadian pickup market, truck by truck

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Out of every four vehicles sold in Canada during the first quarter of 2021, one was a pickup truck.

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Okay, that’s an exaggeration. One in four would imply 25 per cent. In reality, pickups accounted for 24.6 per cent of Canadian light vehicle sales. Forgive the hyperbole.

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Pickup popularity has been surging for years, but the uptick since auto dealers began reopening from the early pandemic lockdowns has caused truck market shares to soar to new heights. There were nearly twice as many pickups sold in Q1 as there were premium-brand vehicles. For every vehicle sold by a European brand in the first quarter of 2021, there was one-and-a-quarter pickups sold.

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And the real kicker? The 94,566-unit pickup total produced in January, February, and March overwhelmed the entire passenger car sector to the tune of a 1.4-to-1 margin.

Granted, pickups are unlikely to consistently hold onto one-quarter of the entire Canadian light vehicle market throughout the remainder of the year. In the first quarter of 2020, for example, pickup truck market share climbed all the way to 24.6 percent, yet the year ended with pickups at 21.1 percent.

The primary reason for the likely decrease – even if it’s only an intermittent decrease – over the remainder of 2021 is the severe microchip-derived production restrictions affecting truck lines that generate more volume than any other vehicle on the market. If major pickups are inordinately hampered by the prolonged crisis, abnormally high levels of sustained demand won’t be sufficient to drive market share above the one-quarter mark.

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With midsize pickups on track for their best year since 2008 and full-size trucks growing at a rate similar to the industry at large – slightly better than 15 percent – the pickup sector was up 16 percent to 94,566 sales in Q1. That’s 84,396 full-size trucks and 10,170 midsize pickups. The overall picture is clear, but what’s going on truck by truck by truck?

Nissan Frontier: 0, down 100 per cent

Not even remotely a contributor to the sharp increase in midsize pickup truck sales so far this year, the departing Nissan Frontier lost 512 sales compared to the first quarter of 2019. Not significantly overhauled since the 2005 model year, the Frontier is finally seeing a major revamp for the yet-to-arrive 2022 model, pictured above. The Frontier owned 9 percent of Canada’s midsize truck market in 2019.

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Nissan Titan: 95, down 73 per cent

Despite booming pickup truck demand across Canada, Nissan was simply unable to source any significant success with its second-generation Titan since launching a new truck in 2016. Nissan pulled back on incentives (and inventory) and then determined that the Titan didn’t deserve Canadian attention following a severely restricted 2021 model year. At best, Nissan in 2017 managed 5,692 annual sales with the latest Titan.

Honda Ridgeline: 804, up 4 per cent

Not surprisingly from a manufacturer that traditionally forges an independent path, Honda’s first Ridgeline was an odd-looking unibody duck with some innovative features. The second-generation Ridgeline arrived in the summer of 2016 as a hugely improved pickup that maintained the innovative methodology. But the Ridgeline’s soft Pilot-like face did it no favours. For 2021, the Ridgeline has a new face. But supply is restricted, and even with a squared-off jaw, the Ridgeline is unlikely to inflict any harm on its conventional body-on-frame midsize rivals.

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Jeep Gladiator: 1,189, up 64 per cent

The Gladiator’s unusually off-road-oriented setup means it’s never going to be a mainstream force, but the sales growth is undeniable. Gladiator sales were climbing rapidly even before the auto sales recovery was in full swing. Last summer, Gladiator volume spiked 94 percent, year-over-year. By the fourth quarter of 2020, Gladiator volume shot up 54 percent. 2021’s first-quarter surge produced an extra 414 Gladiator sales.

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Toyota Tundra: 1,548, down 27 per cent

Next in line after the Nissan Frontier for a full revamp, the second-gen Toyota Tundra has basically been the same truck for 14 years. Toyota has sustained a modest level of demand thanks to excellent reliability scores and great resale value. But the Tundra is loud, inefficient, and lacking in outright capability compared to competitors. Like its Tacoma sibling, its also often in short supply. The Tundra’s market share in the full-size truck category is now at 1.8 percent, down from 2.9 percent a year ago. In 2007, when the Tundra was a new truck, Toyota generated more than 5 percent of Canadian full-size truck sales.

GMC Canyon: 1,648, up 134 per cent

The GMC Canyon is one-half of a GM tandem that owns a class-leading 35 percent of Canada’s midsize truck segment. That’s up from 23 percent just one year ago, when it appeared as though the Canyon’s cross-town rival, Ford’s Ranger, was moving in on GM’s territory. Though marginally refreshed, the Canyon is still largely the same truck it was when GM re-birthed the smaller GMC truck way back in late 2014.

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Chevrolet Colorado: 1,956, up 63 per cent

Partnering the GMC Canyon in GM showrooms, the Chevrolet Colorado’s best year since returning from hiatus for the 2015 model year was 2018. 9,348 Colorados were sold in 2018, a year that began with an 1,884-unit Q1. The Colorado is ahead of that pace by 4 percent in 2021.

Ford Ranger: 2,098: up 23 per cent

Once the dominant non-full-size truck, Ford’s Canadian showrooms finished off their remaining 3,716 Rangers in 2012. Seven years later, a larger, modern, properly midsize Ranger landed in Canada. Ranger momentum has been building. Despite the severe challenges of 2020, Ranger volume last year jumped 64 percent to 10,840. Ford is on pace for more than 13,000 Ranger sales in 2021, the best year for the Ranger nameplate in a decade.

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Toyota Tacoma: 2,475, down 9 per cent

Toyota dealers haven’t been able to get their hands on nearly enough Tacomas to meet demand for Canada’s top-selling midsize pickup at a time when Canada’s appetite for midsize trucks is stronger than its been in more than a decade. The Tacoma still outsells all of its rivals – GM’s twins combine to outsell the Tacoma – but the competition is closing the gap. The good news for Toyota? After a tough Q1 with 2,475 sales, supply improved in April. Toyota sold 1,884 Tacomas last month, an April record.

Chevrolet Silverado: 14,478, up 30 per cent

As Ford struggled to supply dealers with enough copies of its new F-150, GM’s two-pronged approach to Canada’s truck market – Silverado and Sierra – actually resulted in more sales than Ford’s F-Series in 2021’s first-quarter. How unusual is that? On an annual basis, GM’s twins haven’t combined to outsell the F-Series since 2008.

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GMC Sierra: 16,670, up 41 per cent

During what appears to be the Year of The Truck – wasn’t last year the Year of The Truck? – the GMC Sierra is currently Canada’s fastest-growing full-size pickup. And while the midsize segment is making significant progress, full-size pickups are the meat and potatoes. Nine out of every 10 pickups sold are full-size trucks. Between the Sierra and Silverado, GM Canada now owns 37 percent of that full-size sector, up from 31 percent a year ago.

Ram pickup: 21,367, up 11 per cent

You know it’s a bizarre year when you’re the No. 2 vehicle in the country, sales are up 11 per cent, and you’re still managing to lose market share. As you’d expect, limited inventory isn’t helping Stellantis’s top-selling vehicle nameplate. If dealers had more Rams, more Rams would be sold. The Ram’s importance to Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram dealers can’t be understated: just under half of the automaker’s sales are full-size trucks.

Ford F-Series: 30,238, up 6 per cent

How does a dominant truck line, critically acclaimed in new F-150 form, stumble out of the gate with a sub-par 6-percent year-over-year sales increase in a market that surged at more than twice that rate? The problem, and you may have heard this before, is the near absence of inventory on Ford dealer lots.

F-150s and Super Duty trucks are selling as they land, or are pre-sold. In other words, while full-size truck volume was up 15 percent in the first-quarter of 2021, there’s plenty of reason to believe the surge could have been far greater.