Ford Motor mentioned Thursday that its new-vehicle gross sales rose 10 % within the three months of April by means of June, because of sturdy demand for vans.
The automaker bought 531,662 motor autos, up from 483,688 within the second quarter final 12 months, as gross sales of pickups, supply vans and heavy vans elevated 26 %. The acquire in truck gross sales greater than offset a decline of almost 3 % in gross sales of electrical autos.
Ford bought 14,843 battery-powered automobiles and vans within the quarter, down from 15,273 a 12 months earlier. The firm has needed to sluggish manufacturing to improve meeting strains and enhance its means to make extra autos later this 12 months.
The improve work primarily affected the Mustang Mach-E, whose gross sales declined 21 % within the second quarter. Ford additionally bought 4,466 F-150 Lightning electrical pickup vans within the quarter. That was greater than double the overall from a 12 months earlier and the second-highest quarterly complete because the truck went on sale.
On Wednesday, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia reported will increase of 14 % or extra. Overall, automakers bought greater than 4.1 million automobiles and vans within the second quarter, in line with Cox Automotive, a market analysis agency, a rise of 16 % from a 12 months earlier. The complete, nevertheless, was about 400,000 fewer automobiles than the trade usually bought within the second quarter earlier than the coronavirus pandemic.
Sales stay under their prepandemic ranges as a result of components shortages have pressured automakers to supply fewer autos for a lot of the final three years. The provide of pc chips, which have been notably laborious to get, has improved in latest months, permitting automakers to supply extra of the autos that buyers have been ready to purchase.
Cox now expects complete 2023 gross sales to exceed 15 million autos. While that will be an enormous enhance from final 12 months’s 13.9 million, it’s properly under the 17 million the trade bought earlier than the pandemic.