America's Iconic Blue-collar Vehicles to Be Marketed to China's Upper Class

Pickup trucks are about as stereotypically American as firearms, baseball, Coca-Cola, and landing on the moon. However, General Motors and Ford don’t want us hoarding all that goodness and plan on exporting their piece of the American pie to the East. The Big Two want to place large American trucks in the hands of upscale Chinese buyers and establish the eminence of a vehicle China currently sees as little more than a tool for farming or construction.

Coincidentally, that is exactly how our love affair with the truck began.

Trucks are only a sliver of the Chinese market right now, though. IHS Markit forecasts a 14 percent increase in pickup truck sales this year, but that only accounts for 1.4 percent of China’s light vehicle market.

Reuters suggests that this may be because so many trucks are restricted to overnight driving in a number of Chinese cities. As a working vehicle, they are largely impractical for personal use outside of rural areas. However, four less-urbanized provinces have launched a trial program allowing trucks into city zones in an attempt to stimulate production as economic growth and automobile sales stagnate.

Now, Ford and GM just need to solve an image problem. “The Chinese call it pika, pika – a very low-end worker’s [vehicle]. But the [Ford F-150] Raptor is totally different,” Wesley Liu, Ford’s Asia-Pacific sales director, told Reuters.

Considering that Pabst Blue Ribbon has managed to position itself as a popular luxury brand in China, the sales success of premium pickups doesn’t seem entirely out the question. The country’s love of Buick and growing affinity for Cadillac further substantiate its near obsession with all things it deems quintessentially American.

Buick sold 105,071 cars in October and Cadillac saw its sales more than double, posting a 117.6 percent increase from the year before.

Those products sell because they use prestige to differentiate themselves from domestic Chinese vehicles. With the lessened restrictions, U.S. automakers want to similarly distance their trucks from the local offerings while crafting a very specific image.

Reuters writes:

Ford and GM – which displayed its Chevrolet Colorado and Silverado trucks around the Guangzhou show, with t-shirt clad urban cowboys and an all-leather rock band selling the trucks’ macho, all-American appeal – have not yet announced prices for their pick-ups, expected to be launched next year. But they should command a sizeable premium to locally made models as China slaps a 25 percent tax on imports.

In April, Ford announced it would bring a performance version of its F-Series to China. A spokesman said the company was also studying whether to include mass-market model, like the F-150 or Ranger, to China, stating that it would likely come down to demand and future regulations.

“The people who buy the Raptor maybe own some other premium vehicle already. This is another toy,” Liu said.

He believes the Raptor is aimed at four types of buyers: wealthy buyers who want to make a splash, business owners that want something other than a traditional commercial vehicle, drivers who want a single all-purpose car, and enthusiasts who “just like the mechanics.”

[Image: Ford Motor Company]