Ford Motor Co. posted a strong first-quarter sales performance, making the Blue Oval the best-selling brand in the United States — but the automaker ceded its ranking in the increasingly competitive electric-vehicle segment amid gains by its crosstown rival.
The Dearborn automaker's total U.S. sales, including both its Ford and Lincoln brands, rose 10.1% year-over-year to 475,906 vehicles. Ford brand sales grew 10.7%.
But the company — at least for now — lost its No. 2 spot in the EV segment behind market leader Tesla Inc. due in part to production downtime for two of its key electric products. General Motors Co., meanwhile, reported selling about 20,000 EVs in the first quarter — nearly twice as many as Ford — amid strong demand for the Chevrolet Bolt after sales resumed following a recall for battery fire risk early last year.
Ford's sales of 10,866 electric vehicles were up 41% from a year ago. The automaker currently has three EVs on the market: the F-150 Lightning pickup truck, the Mustang Mach-E crossover SUV, and the E-Transit cargo van. All three models have proven popular with customers, but Q1 sales were held back by production.
Ford's Cuautitlan plant in Mexico that assembles the Mach-E was down for most of the first quarter as the automaker prepared the facility to boost production to hit a run rate of 210,000 vehicles by year's end. And production of the Lightning at the plant in Dearborn where it's built was down for five weeks in the first quarter as Ford worked through a battery issue. Ford reaffirmed Tuesday that it's on track to reach a run rate of 150,000 units for the Lightning this year. It's aiming to hit a global run rate of 600,000 EVs by the end of this year.
"We are expanding our capacity to build more EVs this year and look to increase our sales as these capacity actions take place," Erich Merkle, Ford's U.S. sales analyst, said via email.
Ford reported 4,291 sales in the first quarter of the Lightning, which went on sale last spring. Mach-E sales were down nearly 20% in Q1, which Ford attributed to the plant downtime. E-Transit sales were up 62.7% from a year ago.
GM is on track to build about 50,000 EVs in the first half of the ear, and to double that in the second half, spokesperson David Caldwell said via email. He also noted the ramp-up of Cadillac Lyriq production, three straight record quarters for the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV, plus the launches later this year of the Chevy Silverado EV, Blazer EV and Equinox EV.
"Our EV growth is happening and will continue to accelerate," Caldwell wrote. "Production is accelerating at our EV plants in Michigan and Tennessee, and that's backed by production of battery cells by our Ultium Cells joint venture in Ohio. As that production continues to ramp-up, so will our growth."
"Ford is off to a fast start to the year," Andrew Frick, Ford's vice president of sales, distribution and trucks, said in a statement. "Ford's sales growth and investments are a direct result of strong customer demand across our truck, SUV, and electric vehicle segments. And this year's highly anticipated new product launches with Super Duty, Escape, Mustang and Ranger, will only add to this momentum."
Garrett Nelson, an equity analyst at CFRA Research, on Tuesday reiterated his "buy" opinion on Ford's stock.
"Ford's U.S. sales are off to a strong start in '23, which we think reflects the momentum of its vehicle portfolio from models such as the Bronco (Q1 sales +38%), which continue to take market share from Jeep, and the ongoing ramp-up of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup," Nelson wrote in a research note.
"Ford was one of the first to bring an electric pickup truck to market and we think will reap the benefits as evidenced by its strong reservation count," he added. "We also view Ford's EV growth strategy as the most prudent of the traditional automakers. While Ford's Q1 EV sales rose 41%, F-150 Lightning deliveries fell 37% from the Q4 total due to a production halt, underscoring risks automakers face as they attempt to execute aggressive EV production plans."
The automaker — which is moving to boost production for a number of its popular vehicles — attributed the Blue Oval brand's growth to the popularity of the F-Series, Bronco and Mustang, as well as to strength in the commercial and electric vehicle segments. F-Series, sales of which were up 21.1%, helped drive growth of 19.6% in the lucrative truck segment.
Meanwhile, Ford reopened order banks for the off-road-oriented Bronco SUV on March 27. The automaker pointed to the vehicle's 60% conquest rate to explain the strong sales performance in the first quarter, when Bronco was up 37.6%.
Other Ford brand models that posted sales increases included: Bronco Sport (2.7%), Explorer (35.9%), Expedition (99.2%), and Maverick (11.6%). Sales of the EcoSport, Escape, Edge, and Ranger were down for the quarter.
Lincoln sales dipped 1.1% from the first quarter of 2022. Sales of the Navigator were a bright spot, with 94.1% growth. Across the automaker's brands, sales of hybrid vehicles dipped 4.1% year-over-year while internal combustion engine vehicle sales were up 10.5%.
Industrywide, first-quarter sales performances were mixed. GM on Monday reported that U.S. deliveries rose 17.6% to 603,208 in the first three months of 2023, with all of the Detroit automaker's brands posting year-over-year growth.
U.S. sales, meanwhile, of Stellantis NV's Jeep SUVs, Ram pickup trucks and its other vehicles were down 9%. Chrysler and Dodge, both promoting the final model year of gas-powered models, were the only brands to see sales rise.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. sales dropped 8.8% year-over-year. Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. had record quarters with sales up 27% and 15%, respectively. Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. saw 17.3% growth. Subaru Corp.'s sales were up 8.3%.
------
(Detroit News staff writers Breana Noble and Kalea Hall contributed to this story.)
