2015 has been a lively year for trucks, and we’re only half through February. Since the debut of the North American Auto Show in Detroit , Jan. 12-25, the truck industry has exploded with news that has changed the market and how we view trucks, and how those changes to 2015 are also affecting the diesel market.
The Nissan Titan
The early news out of the Detroit auto show was that the new Nissan Titan was turning heads. Yes, the Cummins option was debuted in a half-ton truck making it difficult to compare to similar trucks in the same class, but with the advent and rise of Ram’s EcoDiesel and rumors that the 2016 or 2017 F-150 might include a diesel option, it becomes apparent that the there is an emerging market in the light weight, half-ton truck diesel market.
This could signal an interesting change in the diesel industry, which has traditionally focused on high horsepower, performance trucks that can handle large, onerous loads. Now, it appears that the emerging fight is over the niche between lighter weight gas trucks and their better-performing diesel counterparts.
However, it wasn’t the Nissan Titan that took the title of the 2015 Detroit Auto Show Truck of the Year. No, that honor fell on the new ambitious changes to the F-150.