As Outdoor Sports and Domestic Travel Booms, China Pickup Truck Market Becomes World’s Second Largest
2020 was full of surprises. One of them is that the China pickup truck market became the world’s second largest, behind only the US. This is incredible considering that China has the world’s strictest rules when it comes to pickup trucks. Also, pickups haven’t historically been seen as a cool or popular like they are here in the US. But it appears that is changing.
China pickup truck sales broke records in 2020, experiencing a 10% jump in sales year over year to 452,000 units. The numbers are not that impressive compared to the US, but it is still very significant because the industry is in very early stages.
Why Weren’t Pickups Popular Before?
In China, pickups, known as pika, have been long regarded as a utilitarian tool. They often lack the comforts of other passenger vehicles and weren’t something that the average middle class or wealthy Chinese urban consumer would consider purchasing. They’d much rather opt for the newest SUV or sports car. This is very unlike in the US, where pickups are seen everywhere and considered the “Cowboy’s Cadillac”.
What Changed
Over the past few years, China’s outdoor sports and sports tourism industries have boomed as Chinese consumers become more health conscious. Hiking, camping, fishing, rock climbing and off-roading are some of consumers favorite outdoor activities. Interest in these sports has also led to an increase in sports tourism, as city-dwellers get out of the city to nearby destinations for the weekend or go on long road trips during holidays.
While this trend started taking off prior to the Covid pandemic, it has really boomed over the last year as consumers are restricted to traveling domestically. Places such as Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Ningxia have become very popular as people look to get out into the great outdoors away from other people.
As a result, pickup trucks became the number one choice for people who wants to travel across China. It allows them to carry supplies and tents into the beautiful no-man’s land.
As young people become more interested in a free and active lifestyle, their perception of pickup trucks has shifted. This shift is also influenced by their exposure to western culture. From traveling abroad or watching movies, they see pickup trucks as the ultimate freedom symbol. The go anywhere and haul anything rugged look fits the new generation’s lifestyle like a glove.
Several Chinese brands have jumped on this opportunity and are creating trucks designed for the China market.
Top China Pickup Truck Brands: Great Wall
Brands like Great Wall and Maxus are leading the way with both design and innovation. Great Wall is China’s No 1 off-road vehicle and SUV manufacturer formed in 1984. Trucks are sold under the Great Wall brand and SUVs are sold under the Haval and WEY brands.
it used to be imitation over innovation for the brand. When I was growing up, if you couldn’t afford a Toyota Land Cruiser or a Land Rover then you would buy a Great Wall. Why? Well from far away it looked just like either of them. However, things have changed since then. Great Wall has invested deeply in research and development, partnering with several European leading manufacturers such BorgWarner and Robert Bosch Gmb to improve quality and reliability.
On top of that, the brand has never lost focus on off-road ability. The company first appeared on the world stage in 2010 at the Dakar Rally. In 2012 the team finished 6th.
The Great Wall Cannon
The latest model Cannon became an instant hit in the China pickup truck world. The brand analyzed the market and found that the majority of the consumers will buy aftermarket parts to modify a regular truck. Their goals are to make it look better and outfit it for the outdoor activities they would like to do. However, modifications are mostly illegal in China, unless it is factory installed. Nowadays, the factory modified cars are the most popular amount young buyers. Because of this, the brand decided to “modify” the truck with snorkels and rugged off-road fenders and even a wench.
The Cannon is the top selling consumer truck model in China right now. It is also the only brand that has a full electric version currently on sale. In February 2021, a total of 15,127 Great Wall pickup trucks were sold. This is an increase of 611% year-on-year, with a market share of 51%.
Top China Pickup Truck Brands: Maxus
Under the SAIC corporate umbrella, Maxus is a relatively young company founded in 2011. Maxus originally focused on commercial vans but since 2013, the company started to add SUV’s and pickup trucks into its lineup. Its latest pickup truck model is the Maxus Bull T90.
The Maxus Bull T90 is filling the gap left by other popular mid-size trucks such as the Toyota Tacoma and Ford Ranger, which are not currently selling in the China market.
Right now, it has the highest output in the midsize pickup truck class in China. The unique feature of this truck is it can be optioned with 2 liter inline 4 cylinder diesel engine with compound Turbo (sequential Bi-Turbo) and produces 500 Newton meters of torque (around 370 ft-lb). This setup reduces Turbo lag dramatically using the smaller Turbo to spool up the bigger Turbo. No other mid-size pickups in the China market are using this technology.
This horsepower and torque might not seem like much compared to the US where big brands are competing with big V8s and even V10s, but it is plenty for China where mid-size trucks are more popular. This is largely to do with government regulations and the government’s goal to transition to electric vehicles by 2035. Therefore it is highly unlikely that the Chinese manufacturers will put effort into creating models with larger displacement engines.
Outside of Mainland China, Maxus has already established a strong presence in Asia, Australasia, and the Middle East region.
Government Restrictions
Besides the image, a key thing that has stopped many consumers from purchasing a pickup are the regulations. China has many regulations around when and where you can drive them. For example, major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou restrict pickup trucks from entering the city limits during the day. In major Chinese cities there are also restrictions on how many cars a person can own. Typically it is one vehicle per person, and you have to win a license plate lottery before even being able to buy one. Therefore people will be less likely to choose a car that they can’t drive all the time since they can only have one car.
This means that, right now, people from second and third tier cities and the rural areas are most likely to consider pickups, because there are less restrictions compared to major first tier cities.
However, even with the restrictions, we are starting to see more consumers in 1st tier cities purchasing pickups anyway. For example, a couple will have one car that they can drive within the city (increasingly choosing an electric SUV) and then the truck which they can use on weekends to drive out of the city into rural areas.
As more and more consumers are choosing pickup trucks, and the central government is trying to boost economy and promote outdoor sports and domestic tourism, it is also encouraging certain cities and local government to ease restrictions on pickup trucks.
The Market is Still in The Early Stages
Even though China has become the world’s second largest market for pickup trucks, the numbers are still far behind the US. However, the market has huge potential. Like we just mentioned, there are currently many roadblocks in place that are preventing the Chinese pickup truck market from fully taking off.
We definitely won’t eliminate the possibility of China become the largest market for pickup trucks in the future.
