F Ford Motor Company

By Mike Colias 

General Motors Co. in 2020 dethroned rival Ford Motor Co. in Detroit's closely watched "truck wars": the battle for the top slot in the lucrative large pickup-truck market.

For the first time since 2016, GM outsold Ford in large pickup trucks, a category that generates the bulk of global profits for each auto maker.

Sales of GM's two pickup models -- the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra -- rose 3.9% last year, to 839,691 trucks, even as industrywide sales sank nearly 15% amid disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic. Ford's F Series line, which includes its F-150 truck as well as the larger Super Duty, fell 12%, to 787,422, the company said Wednesday.

The rivalry among GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Ram brand -- which combined dominate the market for large pickups -- has become more intense as that category has grown as a share of the overall vehicle market. Large pickups accounted for 16.7% of overall sales last year, up from 12.5% in 2015.

The trend has bolstered the bottom lines of the Detroit auto makers, helping to fuel a prolonged period of prosperity that only recently was disrupted by the Covid-19 health crisis.

Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 06, 2021 12:53 ET (17:53 GMT)

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