GM says better business planning enabled it to leave Ford behind in truck sales for 2015.GM is reporting that Ford blew it.
GM enjoyed better pickup sales than Ford during 2015 and credits its success to better planning.
In an interview with the Associated Press GM North America Executive Vice President Alan Batey says that Ford blundered when it abandoned its U.S. midsize truck plans and banked instead on an aluminum bodied F-150.
Batey contends that GM’s focus on its full and midsize trucks gave them an edge to sail past Ford’s 2015 truck sales.
“They said they don’t think there’s a market for a midsize truck,” Batey says. “Here we are a year later, we’ve outsold them on the aluminum truck, and then they’ve announced they’re coming in with a midsize. We may have read it a little bit better than them.”
Combined, GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra topped 824,683 sales last year, according to Autodata Corp. By comparison, Ford sold about 44,000 less F-Series pickups in the U.S.
GM’s new midsize pickups, the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon, enjoyed increased market popularity and had nearly 115,000 combined sales for 2015.
For 2014, Ford had the upper hand over GM with nearly 754,000 truck sales, or roughly 12,000 more than GM.
