The 2012 sales year was kind to heavy-duty pickups, which worked out well for truckmakers given these vehicles are significant profit centers. Based on 2012 R.L. Polk data from new vehicle retail registrations for full-size pickups in the U.S., the three-quarter-ton and one-ton market managed to get about 20 percent of the total pickup sales.
We've decided to split the 2500 and 3500 segments apart to give you an idea how the sales numbers differ. As you might expect, this segment is heavily dominated by the turbodiesel engine choice, with each manufacturer averaging above 80 percent in their respective one-ton truck offering. Of course, certain premium-level heavy-duty models are only offered with the diesel engine choice.
Interestingly, the overall take rates for their respective big-diesel engine choice (when calculating both three-quarter-ton and one-ton pickups together) is more than 85 percent for Ram HDs, about 68 percent for Ford Super Dutys, 55 percent for GMC and 45 percent for Chevy. As you may have surmised, the 2500 HD (both the Sierra HD at 50 percent and Silverado HD at 35 percent) trucks still sell a lot of gasoline 6.0-liter V-8s in the segment.
Next, we'll take a closer look at the midsize segment, as well as how well each of the pickup truck makers did for 2012.
