The 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor is the first truck that the automaker will be selling in China.Pickup sales are taking off in China as the government loosens up restrictions that have historically confined the vehicles to rural areas.
China recently permitted pickups to travel city streets in four Chinese provinces where they previously had been banned. The move could lead to even greater pickup sales at a time when truck sales have been on the rise, according to Fortune Magazine.
China is home to the world’s largest auto market. Last year, 21 million vehicles were sold in the Communist nation, with less than 330,000 of those being pickups.
But since then, sales have been on the rise. Through June of this year, pickup sales rose 36 percent over the same time last year, according to Bloomberg.
Ford announced in April that the first truck it will be selling in China will be the 2017 F-150 Raptor. However, Fortune reports that China’s gray market has already paved the way for “quite a few” Raptors in some of the nation’s wealthier areas.
Though the Chinese government has been a strong proponent of electric vehicles, consumers there are increasingly leaning towards larger and more powerful vehicles like trucks. Those concerned over air pollution in China are concerned about the trend.
