Full-size trucks can sell in Oz

The full-size truck rush Down Under has every chance of being a sales success … if the pricing is right.

That’s the verdict of the highest-ranking Australian in the global automotive industry, General Motors global design chief Michel Simcoe.

The Lancia-loving Melburnian, who has been in the top design job at GM for 20 months, was speaking to motoring.com.au at the Detroit motor show where the latest generation Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Dodge RAM 1500 made their global debuts.

Both are already being touted as right-hand drive chances for Australia, the 2019 Silverado 1500 after local conversion by HSV and the RAM potentially ex-factory in the USA.

“Do I think a full-size truck would work in your marketplace down there?” Simcoe asked rhetorically. “Pitched properly at customers and at the right price so they are seen as good value then yes.

“They are tools of trade and people buy them to do work.”

Ford’s top-selling F-150 could also be a chance to head Down Under in its next generation, with Ford Asia-Pacific boss Peter Fleet making plain to Aussie media in Detroit his desire to get a right-hand drive business case for the iconic vehicle across the line.

The Nissan Titan is another full-size truck being touted for Australia via an ex-factory RHD program, but the 2019 Silverado 1500’s chief engineer described the chances of a US factory RHD version at “very slim” at Detroit, hence the HSV conversion program.

While these are the entry-level models in their respective ranges, they are massively big by Australian standards.

The F-150 super cab is about 6.36m long, more than 1.9m high, more than 2.0m wide (without mirrors) and can be powered by everything from a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel to a 5.0-litre petrol V8.

Able to tow far more than ‘mid-size’ utes like the Toyota HiLux – Australia’s top-selling vehicle -- it can weigh in at more than 2.25 tonnes despite the extensive use of aluminium in a high-tech package.

But Simcoe said while the size of the full-size trucks was alien to Australians, their popularity was driven by the same motivations that are spurring on sales of our smaller 4x4 dual-cabs in Australia.

“You can understand the truck and truck heritage if you think about tool of trade and the size of this country and all the things that made a ute a very practical vehicle in the [Australian] bush," said Simcoe, who presented the 2019 Silverado at its world debut on the eve of the Monday's Detroit show opening.

“All the reasons that made mid-size trucks work over there, are all the same reasons a full-size truck works here [in the USA].

“It’s just a difference in the size of vehicle.”

Most of the big US trucks are already converted and available in Australia, where Ford’s F Series is also the most popular – courtesy of converters like Performax International and Harrison F-Trucks.

HSV will start converting heavy-duty Silverado 2500 and 3500HD utes soon, with the new 2019 Silverado 1500 to follow some time after its US release early next year, while its sister company ASV already handles RAM 2500 conversions. The new 2019 RAM 1500 goes on sale in the US this month.

But those heavy-duty pick-ups cost well north of $120,000 – at least double that of existing top-end mid-size twin-cab 4x4s, thanks in part to local conversion costs – and Simcoe clearly sees the price needing to be far south of that to gain volume sales success here.

“With customer taste there’s an opportunity,” Simcoe said. “If these full-size trucks were available down there at the [right] price, would they have sold? Yep.”

Simcoe defended the low-tech image of big American trucks, pointing to their high level of advanced equipment and construction materials that are improving weight, efficiency and refinement.

“Truck buyers choose that vehicle but they don’t want to give up anything else,” Simcoe said. “The comfort, the technology, the interfaces, the quality of the vehicle. And that’s what they represent now.”

All the automotive companies involved in full-size trucks are big spenders on development for good reason; they are massive sellers and money makers. The F-150 has been America’s biggest selling pick-up every year since 1977 – and its most popular vehicle bar none since 1981.

Simcoe said Silverado sales were critical to underpinning GM’s highly publicised investing into autonomy and electrification.

“This [Silverado] is an incredibly important vehicle for us,” he said. “While we are creating the future and the future is happening right now we have got to pay for it.

“Our current brand portfolios have to clearly sustain us while we make the change.”