Anyone
that regularly follows this blog will know that in this neck of the
woods the pickup is very popular. It suits an outdoor lifestyle, with
enough space to maneuver and park them as well. The size of the vehicles
is large but not by North American standards.
Until now. There is
a market opening up for the larger pickup that is common on Stateside
driveways. The problem is in the US they drive on the wrong side of the
road. To get around that, there is an industry that has recently sprung
up in Australia where large pickups are being converted to right hand
drive.
The Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500 are already sold in
NZ. The Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra are also coming down under, as
manufacturers cash in on the small but increasing desire for such large
pickups to compliment the ‘smaller’ ones that already sell well here.
All
sorted then. Well, not quite. Ford NZ is still yet to confirm the F-150
and it seems Toyota NZ may have ruled out the Tundra. In the case of
the latter, the company has committed to reducing carbon emissions
across its fleet of new vehicles. The Tundra would negatively impact
that.
It surprised me that the interest in this sort of super
sized transport even has potential here. Its days are numbered anyway
unless it eventually moves to electric propulsion, something diehard
pickup owners are not too keen on. The car industry is having to change
as many governments put incentives in place to encourage the take up of
low or no emission vehicles. Perhaps it’s a case of getting them (fossil
fuel trucks) while you can.
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