"It is exhilarating! Pickup trucks are no longer treated as trucks." On June 20th, Chongqing lifted traffic restrictions on pickup trucks, which makes it China's first city to lift the ban on pickups, playing an exemplary role in the country.

According to laws and regulations in China, pickups belong to ordinary light trucks, which have a lifespan of 15 years. All major cities in China have imposed time and route restrictions on trucks. Early pickups utilized low-end diesel engines, which were noisy and highly polluted. But nowadays pickups have dramatically improved in technology, emission, appearance, and configuration.

Pickups sale hot

On June 20th, the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau launched measures to promote automobile consumption and smooth logistics transportation. Pickups with Chongqing registration plates are free from the truck ban and restriction management in the city, which has dragged up the sales of pickups.

"I've been considering a pickup for quite a long time but haven't purchased one yet, just regarding the restrictions on it as a truck," said Mr. Wang, who runs a supermarket and has always wanted a pickup for transportation of goods. Learning that Chongqing had released restrictions, Mr. Wang immediately ordered one. After only one week, he owned his new pickup.

"This week, the number of citizens coming to our shop to consult and purchase pickups increased by 10% to 15%," said Zhou You, the sales consultant of a 4S shop. "We mainly sell models such as Great Wall Pickup and Great Wall Cannon."

Up to now, the holdings of pickups in Chongqing are around 25,300, according to government data. Among these pickups, only over 4,500 are registered in the central urban area of Chongqing.

Since this year, 3,653 new pickups registered in Chongqing. "Pickups will impact the small and medium-sized freight market. With the large entering of pickups, the freight pattern in central urban areas may have some changes," said the person in charge of the freight department of a logistics enterprise.

Pickup producers' new anticipation

Recently, the 300,000th vehicle of Great Wall Cannon was rolled off from the production line at the Great Wall smart factory in Yongchuan District, Chongqing, the fifth full-processed manufacturing base of Great Wall Motor in the world.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 and parts shortages, Great Wall Motor pickups still acts remarkably. In April this year, Great Wall Motor pickups' sales reached 11,997, accounting for 47.7% of the market, ranking first in the domestic pickup sales that month, and is one of the most popular brands in the market.

The trailer models of the Great Wall Cannon are powered with 2.5 tons trailer qualification, power intake, and installation port. They are perfectly suitable for transporting towing yachts, recreational vehicles, and motorboats, greatly expanding the use scenarios of trailers.

The Great Wall Cannon began to popularize in overseas markets, successively entering more than 50 countries and regions worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, winning the favor of consumers in key global markets like Australia and Chile.

A related person in charge of Qingling Motors said that consumers of pickups fall into two categories. One is the owners with the demand for carrying freight and people, such as engineering rescue and daily load. The other is the off-road enthusiasts, who mainly focus on pickups' outstanding field transport capacity and the convenience of carrying camping tools.

Qingling has launched two series of pickups in recent years: Isuzu Taga and Isuzu T17. The former mainly meets the needs of off-road enthusiasts, while the latter basically serve for vehicle owners to transport goods.

A pioneer in China

"Chongqing has taken the first step to lift restrictions on pickups. It is not only a positive response to the policy of the State Council of the People's Republic of China to lift the ban on pickups, but also a pioneer for the rest of the country," said Gu Guoquan, Editor-in-chief of cnpickups.com.

Gu said that since April this year, the State Council has issued two documents proposing to "implement refined management of pickups entering cities, and seek for further lifting the restrictions on it," which set the general direction for pickup restriction lifting.

Gu believes that Chongqing has a dense population and rapid urbanization development. It is also an important transportation hub and resource metropolis in central and western China, possessing a perfect automobile ecology. The lift of restrictions will not only promote the sales of pickups in Chongqing but will also radiate to other central and western regions closely connected.

( Ge Rongchen, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)