Foreign builders are challenging Detroit in the growing US pickup market

The light truck segment has been one of the drivers of the new vehicle market, and it is likely to become much more crowded in the next few years, with Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Hyundai, among others, considering adding utility vehicles to their fleet. range.

Mitsubishi and Volkswagen officials say they are currently exploring different options, and both should take action before the middle of the next decade, according to industry analysts. Meanwhile, Hyundai is already working on a production version of the popular Santa Cruz concept that it revealed for the first time at the 2015 International Auto Show for North America.

Augusto Amorim, Senior Analyst at LMC Automotive, believes that other automakers, ranging from the big Fiat Chrysler brand to the Mercedes-Benz highline, are planning to make their own pickup. Most new entrants will go to the middleweight market, he said, "which we think should be one of the fastest growing segments" in the US by the middle of the decade.

Before Mitsubishi closes its plans, Mark Chaffin, COO of North America, said "[we] We need to have one that suits Mitsubishi, our people, and something really competitive in the marketplace, "according to the specialized publication Ward & # 39; s.

Over the years, Mitsubishi has offered several pickups to US buyers, including a revamped version of the Dodge Dakota she named the Raider. He now has several alternatives after being absorbed by what has become the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. It could update the collection currently sold on more than 150 world markets under different names, including Triton, L200 and Strada. As part of the Alliance, Amorim said in an interview that he expected that an American truck would probably be based on the same platform as the current intermediate model of Nissan, the Frontier.

"We expect that they will use the Frontier platform to enter the US market in 2024," said the analyst.

Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, told another industry publication, Automotive News, this week. In his case, however, he still has more options:

• The German automaker showed a possibility at the 2018 International Auto Show in New York, a mid-size concept based on the same platform as its three-row Atlas SUV;

• At this year's show in New York, VW revealed a reduced truck concept, called Tarok, that made up for its small size by using a creative approach to turn its rear seat into part of the bed of the van;

• With VW already partnering with Ford on light commercial vehicles and discussing various other joint ventures, he could try to negotiate an agreement allowing him to build a version of the new Ford Ranger that has just returned to the US market after a long absence. .

Previously, VW had built a compact pickup truck in the United States in the late '70s and early' 80s, based on the same platform as its Rabbit hatchback model. It is generally expected to use a car-based platform for an American model, and adopting a version of the Tarok concept could be particularly appealing, as Keogh told Automotive News, a production model will be created for the southern market -American. [in 2020]. The question we have is, could anything like this make sense, with changes, in the US market? "

Regardless of the approach, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen are expected to enter the mid-size pickup truck market in the United States, rather than the normal size segment. National automakers largely dominate this market – which provides General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler with the bulk of their revenues. The two foreign players, Toyota and Nissan, have repeatedly failed in the market for larger and larger vans that can river with the Ford F-150 or the Chevrolet Silverado GM.

This is another story in the mid-market segment that has long been dominated by imports. Previously larger than the normal-size segment, the demand for models like the Toyota Tacoma began to falter early in the new millennium and, by the time the industry reached the bottom of the recession, Honda and the three Detroit builders started to pull out.

General Motors, however, decided to try again the mid-size vehicle market for 2015, with the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon models. Demand has been so strong that Honda has released a new version of its own mid-size truck, the Ridgeline. Ford, who continued to produce a version of his Ranger for overseas markets, initially hesitated, but by 2019 he returned with an Americanized version of the truck. And Jeep, which has not been picking up since 1992, has just made its own comeback with the medium sized Gladiator.

The flow of new products is clearly paying off. Large format pickup sales in the United States range from € 2.3 million to € 2.4 million annually, a figure that LMC Automotive expects to maintain in the middle of the decade. Sales of medium-sized models jumped from 452,000 in 2017 to 524,000 last year, according to consulting firm forecasts, which should reach 600,000 this year and reach 714,000 by 2025.

This is the kind of attraction that has other brands given their options. This includes Fiat Chrysler, which could revive the Dakota under its Dodge brand or the Ram division, which produces the company's 1500 and heavyweight models. Whatever the case may be, a second mid-size model was included in the five-year business plan revealed by the automaker's last CEO, Sergio Marchionne, last June. The problem, said Reid Bigland, boss of the Ram brand, in an interview, is to come up with the right business model and choose the best brand to market it.

Another competitor could be Mercedes, which launched its very first pickup, the X-Class, in 2017. The initial plans did not include the US, but several analysts now have a version of the luxury truck in their product forecasts.

"The challenge is positioning: does it need a luxury truck or utility vehicle," said Amorim. "I do not think they know how to sell it and who they would sell it to."

As with almost every other vehicle segment in the US market, pickup trucks have grown steadily over the years. The current version of the mid-sized Chevrolet Colorado is almost as big as the full-size Chevrolet Silverado three decades back.

Some industry players believe this could create a new, even smaller option that could replace the compact vans that were particularly popular when baby boomers were just starting to hit the road.

Ford, for one, said that he was working on a truck that would be smaller than the Ranger. And the Hyundai Santa Cruz should also be in the compact category, at least if it stays close to the original concept model.

But buyers should not expect the kind of bargains offered in the 1960s and 1970s. Models such as the old Chevrolet S10 could be purchased with a minimum of comfort, without power windows or mirrors, for example , and certainly not with infotainment systems controlled by a touch screen that millennia love. Today's vehicles must also meet government standards for emissions, mileage and safety, which drive up prices.

Volkswagen's Keogh said that, to control its costs, any future pickup would likely be built in Mexico, as other builders would probably do. This approach would not only allow them to reduce labor costs, but would also avoid the "chicken tax", a tariff put in place over 40 years ago that would impose a 25% surtax. on imported vans.