The Ford F-150 Raptor and the Chevrolet Silverado are heading to China, but will be sold as luxury high end models rather workhorse vehicles.
The high performance Ford F-150 Raptor, with a turbocharged 3.5-liter V6, will go on sale in China from 2017. Chevrolet will also begin selling the Silverado pickup in the near future.
In the US the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado function as both workhorse commercial vehicles, as well as performance and luxury trucks, but in China, the full size pickups will be luxury items only.
They will be sold at a higher price than local pickups, not only because they are larger but also because they will include a 25 percent tax for fully imported trucks.
Wesley Liu, Ford Asia-Pacific’s sales director, says “the Chinese call [pickup trucks] pika, pika – a very low-end worker’s (vehicle). But the [Ford F-150] Raptor is totally different.”
Source: Reuters, Automobile
