April 5, 2023: On Tuesday, Ford Motor reported an almost 10% increase in its quarterly U.S. sales, led by increases in its critical F-Series pickups and Bronco SUVs.
The Detroit automaker is trading 475,906 vehicles during the first three months, up 10.1% compared with subdued yearly levels due to supply chain issues. Its namesake brand increased by 10.7%, while its Lincoln luxury brand was off by 1.1%.
Sales of Ford trucks increased by nearly 20%, car sales increased by 5.1%, and SUVs surged below 1%. Sales of Ford’s E.V.s increased by 41%. However, they amounted to less than 10,900 vehicles or about 2.3% of its quarterly sales.
Sales of the electric F-150 Lightning totalled 4,291 pickups during the quarter, including several weeks of downtime following a vehicle caught fire. Ford stated that it is still on track to expand the display of the E.V. at a Michigan plant to per-year production run prices of 150,000.
Ford stated the sales of 170,377 F-Series pickups, up about 21% compared to the year. Different notable sales increases included its Bronco SUV, up almost 38%; its Explorer SUV, up 36%; and its Expedition, which saw its sales almost double.
“Ford is off to a fast beginning to the year. Ford’s sales increase and investments are a direct result of strong customer demand all over our truck, SUV, and E.V. segments,” Andrew Frick, Ford vice president of distribution and trucks, stated.
Ford’s sales surge comes as Wall Street analysts monitor increasing vehicle inventories and incentives for the U.S. automotive industry following low levels of both during the previous three years.
“With inventory up for the 8th every month consecutive, incentives are creeping back in. How much more can car prices remain so unaffordable? We think increasing inventory will be the ‘tell’ of cracking industry costs discipline,” Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas stated in an investor note Monday night.
Jonas noted that incentives were up 3.5% yearly at $1,529 per car in March, which increased from $1,490 the previous month. The increase was mainly from domestic automakers, as inventories slowly crept up. Both incentives and stocks are still lower than historical levels.
Morgan Stanley estimates industry sales in the previous month increased 8.7% as automakers increased production levels following several years of huge supply chain problems.
