The results are in for the 2023 Q3 pickup truck sales, and GM’s light-duty trucks see big gains while the bottom falls out for nearly all midsize truck competitors.
[Related content: 2023 Q4 truck sales: Ford F-Series on top, Tacoma steady]
These quarterly sales results are a good way to see who is doing well, who isn’t and what consumers are actually buying. Plus, truck fans love bragging rights, and this gives them a little more ammunition for online debates.
Finally, it will be interesting to watch these sales results change by year end due to the ongoing UAW strike.
2023 Q3 pickup truck sales, full-size trucks
Let’s start analyzing this data by looking at the full-size truck sales.
Once again, and to no one’s surprise, the Ford F-Series lineup of trucks leads the quarterly sales results by volume. The F-Series equals F-150, F-250, F-350 and F-450. A refreshed 2024 Ford F-150 should hit the market in the coming months further helping Ford’s truck sales results.
Speaking of Chevrolet, it comes in second with a strong sales growth for light-duty Silverado 1500 trucks and some sales gains in the heavy-duty truck segment. With Ford seemingly doing better in the current negotiations with the UAW strike, it will be interesting to see how much ground General Motors could lose if it doesn’t make similar progress.
Next is Ram trucks with a single-digit decrease year-over-year. The fact is Ram hasn’t released a lot of new trucks or features in recent years to attract consumer’s attention. However, a new 2025 Ram 1500 is expected to debut next year, which would certainly renew consumer interest. And like GM, Stellantis, Ram’s parent company, isn’t making much progress with the ongoing strike, which could delay this truck.
GMC comes in fourth, and like Chevrolet sees good growth for light-duty Sierra 1500 trucks and small increases for its heavy-duty lineup. This growth is especially important for GM since most GMC customers are buying top-of-the-line models and not base trucks. Why does that matter? Profit — and a lot of it.
The Toyota Tundra comes in fifth as usual with a good increase in Q3 and a sizable growth year-over-year. I recently interviewed the new Tundra Chief Engineer Jay Sackett, and he tells me there are a lot of things consumers can be excited about in the future for the Tundra.
Finally, the Nissan Titan sees a big boom in sales, but this is the last hurrah. Nissan has publicly said this is the last year for the full-size truck. It is likely Nissan is ramping up production to clear out its inventory of parts leading to a boom in sales.
2023 Q3 midsize truck sales results
On the midsize side of things, every truck is struggling and for good reasons.
Good reasons? Yup. For example, the 2024 Toyota Tacoma has been unveiled, yet it isn’t on the market yet. Consumers are likely waiting to see the new model pricing and options before plunking down cash for the outgoing model.
The 2023 Chevy Colorado was down, but it went on the market just last quarter. And, like the 2023 GMC Canyon, it is experiencing some early reliability concerns with dead batteries. These concerns should have consumers cautious until the issue goes away.
Next the Jeep Gladiator saw a big sales drop, and the updated 2024 model isn’t on the market yet. Plus, the UAW strike targeted a facility critical to building more models of the midsize truck.
The Honda Ridgeline and Nissan Frontier both had blah quarters with no real reason behind it besides being some of the oldest midsize trucks on the market now.
Speaking of old, the Ford Ranger comes in last with the new model just now going into production. This timing is a concern, again, with the UAW strike going on. It is most likely the new 2024 Ford Ranger roll-out will be impacted.
2023 Q3 compact truck sales
For the new compact trucks, sales continue to be strong.
These new trucks, the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, are the “right size” truck choice for many consumers and both brands simply can’t build enough of them.
Looking at these results, don’t be surprised if you hear of new competitors from Chevrolet, Toyota and other brands coming soon.
2023 Q3 electric truck sales
Finally, electric truck sales continue to be volatile with a quickly changing market.
On the one hand, most EV sales are up, yet for how long. Looking at the Ford F-150 Lightning, it started off with a bang and now sees a massive drop in sales. Maybe the new 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning Flash will turn things around with a lot of features bundled together and aimed at a $70k price point.
Until the various issues plaguing EVs get figured out — such aa infrastructure, cold-weather range and high prices — it is hard to predict what will happen in this segment.
| 2023 Q3 Pickup Sales | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-Size Truck Sales | Q3 Sales | Last Year Q3 Sales | Quarterly Change | Year-to-Date | Last Year-to-Date | Year-over-Year Change |
| Ford F-Series | 190,477 | 167,962 | 13.4% | 573,370 | 467,307 | 22.7% |
| Chevy Silverado LD HD | 139,333 85,262 54,071 | 114,964 63,629 51,334 | 17.5% 34% 5.3% | 403,403 265,377 138,026 | 374,479 233,190 141,289 | 7.2% 13.8% -2.3% |
| Ram Truck | 109,391 | 118,106 | -7% | 332,440 | 363,089 | -8% |
| GMC Sierra LD HD | 75,810 44,769 28,450 | 62,321 27,114 23,055 | 17.8% 65.1% 23.4% | 216,227 137,747 78,480 | 169,107 97,452 71,655 | 21.8% 41.3% 9.5% |
| Toyota Tundra | 32,953 | 30,203 | 8.4% | 92,688 | 74,519 | 20% |
| Nissan Titan | 4,857 | 1,275 | 208.9% | 15,407 | 12,487 | 23.4% |
| Midsize Truck Sales | Q3 Sales | Last Year Q3 Sales | Quarterly Change | Year-to-Date | Last Year-to-Date | Year-over-Year Change |
| Toyota Tacoma | 62,836 | 67,224 | -7% | 179,681 | 175,872 | 2.2% |
| Chevrolet Colorado | 25,520 | 24,405 | 4.6 | 58,685 | 68,595 | -14.4% |
| Jeep Gladiator | 14,202 | 21,511 | -34% | 41,528 | 60,268 | -31% |
| Honda Ridgeline | 12,138 | 12,515 | -3.4% | 39,568 | 32,312 | 21.9% |
| Nissan Frontier | 11,756 | 13,187 | -10.9% | 45,895 | 56,353 | -18.6% |
| GMC Canyon | 7,627 | 7,750 | -1.6% | 19,351 | 21,411 | -9.6% |
| Ford Ranger | 7,385 | 12,453 | -40.7% | 31,503 | 46,293 | -31.9% |
| Compact Pickup Sales | Q3 Sales | Last Year Q3 Sales | Quarterly Change | Year-to-Date | Last Year-to-Date | Year-over-Year Change |
| Ford Maverick | 23,931 | 13,049 | 83.4% | 66,430 | 51,802 | 28.2% |
| Hyundai Santa Cruz | 9,033 | 8,600 | 4.8% | 29,083 | 26,803 | 7.9% |
| EV Truck Sales | Q3 Sales | Last Year Q3 Sales | Quarterly Change | Year-to-Date | Last Year-to-Date | Year-over-Year Change |
| Rivian - R1T, R1S, Van | 15,564 | 6,584 | 495% | 36,150 | 12,278 | 294% |
| Ford Lightning | 3,503 | 6,464 | -45.8% | 12,260 | 8,760 | 40% |
| GMC Hummer EV | 1,167 | 411 | 183.9% | 1,216 | 782 | 55.5% |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV | 18 | - | - | 18 | - | - |
The bottom line
These sales results are likely our last without impacts from the UAW strike. This strike will not just impact GM, Ford and Ram, but all brands as I’m hearing all automakers talking about upcoming parts supply issues since everyone uses similar suppliers. Once those parts suppliers slow down due to the strike, you can expect this to impact everyone.
1 comment
Seagulls
Midsized trucks offer perhaps 60% of the ability of full sized trucks at 80% of their price. Its little wonder that Midsized truck sales have faltered in favor of full sized trucks.