Pouring over vehicles sales from the previous year is an annual January tradition, and it’s a useful one: the figures reveal trends and sometimes hold surprises.
Though in the full-size pickup sector, there is one constant that has remained immovable for some 50 years now: the Ford F-150 tops the sales chart.
This was the case once again last year. The F-150 has been the best-selling model in the United States for 47 years, while in Canada, it claimed the title again in 2023, for the 58th consecutive year.
Full-size pickups
How is it then that General Motors (GM) sold more full-size pickups than Ford in 2023? Because when we look at the combined sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, we see that GM sold 850,885 trucks in the U.S., while Ford sold 750,789 F-150s.
For fans of statistics: Chevrolet sold 555,148 Silverados in 2023, while GMC delivered 295,737 units of its Sierra.
Behind the two front-runners sits Ram, which registered 444,926 units sold. Toyota is far up the track, but it is likely pleased nonetheless with the 125,185 Tundras it sold sold, given that that represents a 20 percent increase from 2022.
Bringing up the rear, we find the Nissan Titan, which has already bid farewell to our market. American consumers picked up only 19,189 of them in 2023.
Mid-size pickups
In the midsize model segment, the pecking order is somewhat different. Toyota emerged on top with its Tacoma (234,768), ahead of the Chevrolet Colorado (71,081), Nissan Frontier (58,135), Jeep Gladiator (55,188), Honda Ridgeline (52,001), Ford Ranger (32,334) and GMC Canyon (22,458).
Compact pickups
Finally, in the compact model category, the Ford Maverick once again performed well with 94,058 sales, compared to 36,675 for the Hyundai Santa Cruz.
The numbers state the obvious, that North American motorists continue their love affair with trucks. American consumers bought 2,847,672 trucks in 2023, accounting for 18.4 percent of the approximately 15.5 million vehicles sold.