Pickup sales surge in California

Truck sales in California soared during 2015 with Ford’s F-Series leading the pack.

Light truck sales shot up dramatically last year in California, besting the national trend by 7 percent.

The California New Car Dealers Association reported that in 2015 there were 851,126 sales of light trucks in the nation’s most populated state. That’s a 19.4 percent gain over sales in 2014, according to The Sacramento Bee.

To help put things into perspective, car sales in the Golden State only saw a 5.8 percent gain in 2015.

Low gas prices are credited for helping to spur truck sales. Ford’s F-Series trucks dominated the pickup market during 2015 in California with 44,369 sales.

GM announced last month that the truck market in Southern California had been so impressive that they chose the region to launch their new hybrid option for the 2016 Chevrolet Silverado and 2016 GMC Sierra.

GM’s hybrid technology, which results in a 13 percent gain in fuel economy, is a welcomed addition in the state where Governor Jerry Brown has set an ambitious goal of filling the state with 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2025.

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