Half of Denver's 10 bestselling vehicles are pickup trucks

Pickup trucks are getting bigger and heavier, and their popularity is soaring in the Centennial State.

Driving the news: Half of Denver's 10 bestselling vehicles are pickup trucks, according to vehicle registration data collected from January through November 2022 by S&P Global Mobility.

• Statewide, the "light truck" market — which includes pickups, SUVs and vans — held a nearly 87% share of vehicles registered in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the latest figures from the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.

Yes, but: Registrations for light trucks were down 12.7% during the fourth quarter of '22 compared to the year before with 193,248 sold in 2021 and with 168,748 last year.

The big picture: As trucks transitioned from gravel-bearing workhorses to family cruisers in the past 40 years, their size and weight have ballooned, according to a new Axios Visuals special project.

• Cabs expanded, beds shrank and full-size trucks picked up a heftier share of the market.

Why it matters: Pedestrian and road safety advocates say today's massive trucks are a hazard, given their size, weight and driver blind spots.

Of note: Of the 26 cities where Axios obtained data, Denver and Seattle were the only two markets in which two Subaru models landed among the 10 bestselling vehicles.

What's next: Electric vehicles. Colorado's electric and hybrid vehicle markets saw major growth in the fourth quarter last year.

• The market share for battery electric vehicles, for example, skyrocketed 48% year-over-year, per the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association.

Go deeper: Pickup trucks are changing