American automakers have gone all in on pickup trucks because they are massively more profitable per unit. Ford redesigned their entire lineup to exploit fuel efficiency laws so that they can sell more pickups without paying fines because CAFE is horribly implemented. Pickup trucks are mostly popular in the US.
>> American automakers have gone all in on pickup trucks because they are massively more profitable per unit. <<
They are massively profitable because foreign‐ made pickup trucks are subject to a 25 percent import tariff -- ie, limited competition:
Since a 1964 spat over European tariffs on poultry, the US has levied a 25% tax on imported trucks, now known as the “chicken tax.” That surcharge largely cleared the road for Detroit’s truck titans — at least until Japanese brands established US factories to get around it — and today means tricky economics for any foreign automaker looking to crack the lucrative American truck market.
