Trucks has become a muddied word in America and not because of their off-road capabilities, but more obviously because of their poor mileage capabilities in this world of continuously rising gas prices. Reduced construction spending is also a contributor to falling truck sales. Ford recently announced it's delaying its Fall 2008 introduction of the 2009 redesigned F-series, while GM is suspending R&D work on its 2012 truck redesigns and shifting those engineers to work on fuel-efficient cars. GM also recently announced that it will close four truck and SUV plants by 2010. Even Toyota has said that it will likely lose money on its two U.S. truck plants this year.
Ford also said that it will make additional cuts in its truck production, citing that 2008 sales are likely to be 25% below what they were in 2007. Ford's F-Series trucks have been the top-selling passenger vehicle for the past 26 years, mostly because of their wide range of models. That record is likely to fall soon in favor of more fuel-efficient vehicles. Until recently trucks and SUVs made up about half of all the vehicles in the U.S. And they likely accounted for a similar share of the automotive companies' large R&D budgets as well. Ford, GM, and Toyota are consistently in the Top Ten Industrial R&D spending companies in the U.S.
It is truly unfortunate that these companies did not see the writing on the wall earlier and make some significant design changes several years ago in the fuel economy of these vehicles. Due to the complexity of the models produced, automotive companies also take a long time to develop new models-generally more than three years.
Trucks have been and will continue to be a significant fraction of the U.S.'s vehicle production. That production will likely become more concentrated in the commercial sector where the cargo capacity is used on a regular basis. Fewer large trucks are likely to be sold into the consumer marketplace where their cargo capacities and performance rarely were used to their full potential.
As a result, future truck designs are likely to be pretty stoic and unexciting. The wide range of models offered will likely also be reduced, and some models may even disappear altogether. And while there is more than enough new design work to focus on, the automotive companies' overall falling revenue is likely to force cuts in their R&D spending budgets as well.
