One look at April’s results leaves little doubt about why each of the Detroit 3 is scrambling to build more pickups.
Full-size pickup sales shot up nearly 10 percent last month and are up nearly 7 percent for the year. Average transaction prices continued marching higher -- up 5 percent for the year through mid-April, to $41,543, J.D. Power data show. Inventories remain tame by historical standards.
Straining to keep their big-gest profit engine humming, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford and, to a lesser extent, General Motors are mobilizing to make more. In all, they are on track to boost total capacity by about 5 percent, or an extra 125,000 pickups, by 2017, IHS Automotive estimates.
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