The pickup truck market controls roughly 25 percent of the total market in North America because they are a very important part of many people’s daily lives, as trucks are more than just transportation, they are tools. There are five major players in the Pickup Truck marketplace, they are: Ford, Dodge, GMC/Chevrolet, Nissan and Toyota.

Ford’s F series is the best selling pickup truck ever, and it is the second best selling vehicle of all time in North America. The F-series has been a leader in trucks for some time, and they have introduced the newest trend in trucks with the V6 Ecoboost engine which has a fuel economy rating of 17 mpg city and 23 mpg highway. The Ecoboost has only six cylinders, but still manages to put out 365 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque thanks to a new high compression setup.

With gas prices forever on the rise, the small engine, big power philosophy is being implemented full swing into the pickup truck market with Ecoboost leading the way.

Dodge, who has now split its RAM truck brand off into its into company, is hot on the heels of Ford, offering the Pentastar V6 engine and eight speed ZF transmission in its newest offering of the RAM 1500. While not up to the power standards of the Ecoboost, the move to eight speed transmissions is the future of trucks, so expect the rest of the pack to follow suit soon. RAM expects that its new engine-transmission combo will best the Ecoboost fuel economy numbers, but we can’t be sure by how much.

While GMC and Chevrolet have made truck innovations in the past, the Silverado offering that is available now is getting old, with the last major redesign happening in 2009. We should see an all new pickup from GMC nearing the end of 2013, and it will probably follow in line of the other two major companies and provide more gears, and a smaller displacement engine with higher compression.

Chevrolet has however added a compressed natural gas engine choice to its heavy duty line-up, which is another growing trend in heavy duty trucks. Dodge and Ford have natural gas trucks, strictly in the heavy duty segment.

Toyota and Nissan half-tons are both overdue for a redesign, and are still running with their thirsty V8’s which just cannot compete with the new age of lean pickups.

The compact pickup truck segment has slowly been losing traction thanks to customers need for bigger and bigger trucks. The only two small trucks left in the segment are the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier, both of which are quite old and outdated. The new gas saving tech coming into the half-ton market is trying to provide owners with the full size pickup they want, with the fuel economy of a small truck.