If you had to guess which car category floundered at the start of 2024, which would you go for? Maybe electric vehicles with all the press about drivers switching to hybrid models instead? Wrong, it was the humble American pickup truck.
That’s right, sales of large pickups were down 4% between January and March 2024, reports Automotive News. The dip came as buyers moved to the light-vehicle market, which was up 5.6% during the same period. As Automotive News reports:
The Ram 1500 pickup fell 15 percent, and Ford Motor Co.’s F-Series line dropped 10 percent. General Motors’ light-duty full-size pickups declined 1.2 percent, though higher sales of heavy-duty models resulted in overall gains for both the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
GM and Nissan Motor Co. were the only automakers to sell more pickups than in the first quarter of 2023. Total pickup sales fell 6.4 percent, including a 31 percent plunge for midsize nameplates.
Analysts say payment-conscious consumers may be pulling back from discretionary purchases of big pickups as prices and interest rates climb, instead choosing smaller and less-costly vehicles— including the compact Ford Maverick pickup, which surged 82 percent. Sales of subcompact and compact crossovers rose roughly 25 percent.
When you look at the share of vehicle sales that large pickups occupy, the results are even more alarming. For the last eight years, large trucks accounted for more than 12 percent of new vehicle sales in the first quarter of the year, peaking in 2020 when they made up 15 percent of sales. In 2024, however, they accounted for just 2.4 percent of light-vehicle sales here in the U.S.
Is the pickup truck’s crown tarnishing? Or are the higher prices for some models and increasing interest rates really to blame for the stagnant sales?
Read more: Hybrid cars are back in as electric vehicle sales slow
A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik’s The Morning Shift.