In 2021, China's pickup truck market closed with a terminal sales data of 391,000 vehicles, down 1.6% year-on-year, which is the only negative growth in the terminal market in the past four years, but this only negative growth is greatly related to the market environment, on the one hand, it is affected by the epidemic, on the other hand, it is constrained by a very serious chip shortage problem, especially the chip shortage problem has had a key impact on the direction of the pickup truck market. And the impact of chips on the automotive industry is not only domestic, but also global. The so-called thinking of danger in peace is the only decline in sales in the terminal market in recent years in 2021, and many people have begun to think about where domestic pickup trucks should go in the future and how to break the situation.
Therefore, for many domestic pickup truck brands, if you want to continue to maintain the growth trend of sales, in the short term, how to solve the chip and pickup truck market expansion is a top priority, so we see that many manufacturers have formulated strategies for purchasing chips, as well as the main passenger population, the pickup truck to the high-end market, while pushing the SUV market overlap with the home population. But in the long run, although the introduction of pickup truck standards and the lifting of the ban policy in many places indicate that the domestic pickup truck market will be getting better and better, but it is still a problem to expand the domestic pickup truck market in a short period of time, and the strong vitality shown by many emerging markets around the world is pointing out that domestic pickup trucks going to sea is indeed a good solution, so the author will take a look at the performance of several major global markets at present, and see what opportunities will be in the future.
U.S. and Canadian markets
According to the data, the annual sales volume of the US pickup truck market in 2021 reached 2.842 million units, down 3.14% year-on-year. In the first half of the year, the sales volume of the US pickup truck market increased by as much as 14% year-on-year, and after entering the second half of the year, it was hit by the double blow of the epidemic and chip shortage, and failed to continue the growth trend in the first half of the year. The Canadian market reached 336,000 vehicles in 2021, down 11.1% year-on-year, and the overall sales volume may be surpassed by Thailand.
Even in the face of the epidemic and chip problems hit, the North American market is still the world's largest pickup truck market, from the annual sales point of view is unbeatable, and from the sales point of view, it can be clearly seen that the acceptance of emerging things in the United States is still good, such as the newly listed bearer products Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz Monthly sales performance is really good, and for a number of new energy pickup products that have not yet been listed, like Tesla's Cyberruck, The Ford F-150 Lightning, GMC Hummer EV and Rivian R1T have all received good orders. It can be said that the U.S. pickup truck market determines the super-large capacity market due to its strong consumption foundation and high living standards, and consumers are more receptive to new things.
However, relatively speaking, the US market is still different from the car habits of other regional markets, due to the sparse population in the United States, relatively low fuel costs, have become the best soil for full-size pickup trucks. However, at present, only the Great Wall has the first full-size pickup truck in China, and it has not been officially listed, so for the US market, it is not necessarily the best choice for domestic pickup trucks. At the same time, the United States has a very famous chicken tax, for foreign imports of commercial vehicles have a higher tax, so it also prompted Toyota, Nissan and other foreign pickup truck manufacturers have set up factories in the United States, but for Toyota and other manufacturers, its cars and SUVs are sold in the United States, so the construction of factories will amortize costs, and for domestic brand pickups, this is actually a very big challenge, which also means that entering the US market must be a full lineup of "participation".
As early as 2019, when the Great Wall Cannon was officially mass-produced off the production line, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, said: "The challenge of the US market is not the problem of the product itself, but the American culture, the laws of the United States, and many unknown places." In fact, we have been organizing the study of the American market, law and culture, and the United States is also very exclusive, not as democratic as imagined. There are many restrictions in the United States, such as the March 337 Act, and American lawyers are waiting for our Chinese cars to go, and people are already ready. In the face of the relatively conservative US market, Wei Jianjun also said: "Americans are also very patriotic, their openness is not very strong, which requires us to integrate into their society, otherwise the discrimination is very large, Lenovo, Huawei, including Fuyao, in fact, are not so smooth." Chinese is very inclusive, we have many nationalities, and we do not exclude outsiders, they are very friendly, they are not so friendly. ”
Australian market
Australia sold a total of 222,000 pickup trucks in 2021, unlike the domestic and American markets, the Australian market increased by 23.94% year-on-year in 2021, allowing people to see the strong vitality of the Australian market, while pickup truck models accounted for 21.18% of the entire new car sales. It can be said that Australia is currently a very dynamic pickup truck market, so a number of pickup brands such as Toyota, Isuzu, Ford and other early globalization have long been deeply cultivated in the Australian market, so we can see that the Australian pickup truck market is not at all local brands, basically the United States and Japan's pickup brands, and these brands have also chosen to set up factories in Thailand where labor is relatively low, and then exported to the Australian market.
However, for overseas brands, the Australian market is to protect local car manufacturers, so imported cars and pickups will impose an import tariff of 5% on new cars priced above AU$68,740, GST (value added tax) of 10%, and for new cars over AU$68,740, a 33% luxury tax will be charged, but the fuel economy of the car will be referred to when collecting luxury taxes, but this is not a problem that pickups should consider.
It is also Australia's current low tax rate has become a market that many pickup brands want to compete for, so we see that domestic pickup brands including great wall and SAIC Maxus have actively laid out the Australian market, the great wall and SAIC Maxus two domestic brands have entered the top ten of the pickup list, the Great Wall Cannon ranked ninth with a score of 6906 vehicles, and it was listed for only one year with the excellent configuration and high cost performance of leading opponents to occupy the C position, becoming the first domestic brand. Since its listing in September 2017, SAIC Maxus T60 has been deeply engaged in the Australian market for 5 years with the British classic brand LDV, and has achieved the tenth place in the market.
Moreover, the Australian market and vehicle-related laws, regulations and vehicle classification standards are basically similar to Europe, and most of the mainland automobile standards are also inherited from the European system, so that Chinese car exports to Australia will not spend too much energy on the matching of laws and regulations. However, if you really want to gain a foothold in Australia, you still have to rely on your own strength through various laws and regulations, such as the Great Wall Cannon, which will become the first Chinese brand to receive a five-star rating under an ANCAP's new standard in 2021, and one of the five-star rated vehicles under the new standard of the Australian pickup truck market. According to the author's understanding, the Great Wall Gun obtained the five-star rating of the Australian collision, not only to prove the safety of the vehicle, but also for the long-term plan, because many industry customers in Australia and very popular engineering car rental companies have explicitly ordered that the pickup truck purchased can only be an ANCAP five-star rating vehicle, so after the Great Wall Cannon obtains this rating, it is more conducive to its foothold in the Australian market.
Finally, the price of pickup trucks in the Australian market is relatively high, and the public's acceptance of pickup trucks is high, so that domestic pickup trucks can quickly enter the market with a very high cost performance, and all kinds of signs show that the Australian market is indeed a key market for domestic pickup trucks to go to sea in the future.
Latin American market
Finally, the author wants to talk about the Latin American market, the Latin American market is currently recognized by many car companies as an emerging market, the sales volume of the Latin American market depends largely on the sales volume of its main markets, including Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, which directly accounts for nearly half of the sales volume of the Latin American market. Needless to say, Toyota Hilax is still the highest-selling pickup truck model in the Latin American market, with total sales in the Latin American market reaching 132,000 units in 2021, accounting for 2.8% of the entire Latin American market share, and after that, there are small carrier pickup trucks like Fiat Strada and Fiat Toro, which can also reach 100,000 units per year, and such pickups can be popular in the Latin American market, especially Brazil and Argentina, mainly depending on the car's extremely low price and cost of the car.
Domestic pickup trucks want to enter the Latin American market, the advantage is that the brand recognition is higher, the Latin American market for the Impression of Chinese brands are generally better, and domestic economic pickup products can also meet the Latin American market for the cost of the car picky. However, for the Latin American market, the difficulty lies in the fact that domestic economic pickup trucks are generally non-carrier body traditional pickup truck products, how to achieve a balance between freight attributes and household attributes of products like Fiat Strada is a big challenge.
In fact, domestic pickup trucks have always been one of the strongest domestic export products. Domestic pickup trucks have long been exported to Africa, the Middle East and other countries, but at that time, the models were more low-cost tool-based products. However, for Australia, Thailand, Latin American markets and other relatively mature, and there is a certain demand for passenger pickup trucks for the market is still urgently needed to be developed by domestic brands, I believe that domestic pickup trucks with their own excellent product strength and super high cost performance, can also achieve their own place.
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Year-on-year growth of nearly 40%! Sales of automatic pickup trucks for the full year of 2021