While China may be the world’s largest market for electric vehicle sales, Chinese car buyers have a new love affair: pickup trucks. As in the U.S., pickups are ideal for construction, farm, and maintenance companies — but consumers find them very appealing for the horsepower and cargo capacity. Chinese vehicle maker Great Wall Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. are betting big on it. The world’s largest new vehicle sales market saw its numbers fall for the first time last year since the 1990s, but pickups sales grew 10 percent to about 452,000 units sold during that time. That marked the fourth straight year of sales growth for the pickup truck segment, according the LMC Automotive consulting firm. Great Wall, China’s largest pickup manufacturer, and Ford, the maker of the popular F-Series pickups, plan to grow their product lines in the Chinese market. Great Wall is developing a multi-purpose […]