Ford F-150 Lightning at the 2022 New York Auto Show.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
DETROIT – Ford Motor’s U.S. vehicle sales last month showed notable improvements in volumes and truck availability, following a fire at a supplier’s plant in Japan that hurt its year-ago sales.
The Detroit automaker said Wednesday its new vehicle sales rose 36.6% in July from a year ago, compared to industry sales that were estimated to have declined by 10.5%. Ford’s July sales of 163,942 vehicles were up 7.7% from June.
A year ago, Ford’s vehicle production and sales were down more than other automakers due to a fire at one of its chip suppliers in Japan that forced production cuts during the first half of 2021.
Ford’s stock was up by as much as 6.5% during trading Wednesday morning to $16.15 a share. Despite having its best performance last month since the Great Recession, the stock remains down about 24% in 2022.
Sales of Ford’s profitable F-Series pickups hit 63,341 in July – marking the first time units have topped 60,000 this year. The sales were up 21.1% compared to a year ago and up roughly 10% from the previous month.
Ford said its share of the U.S. electric vehicle market last month hit a record 10.9%, as the company increases production and availability of the F-150 Lightning pickup, Mustang Mach-E crossover and E-Transit van.
Ford said electric vehicle sales totaled 30,648 units through July. That included sales of about 7,700 vehicles in July, which was 169% increase from a year ago.
Sales of all Ford’s vehicles, including its luxury Lincoln brand, totaled more than 1 million units through July, a 3.3% decrease from a year ago. At the end of last month, the automaker’s U.S. vehicle inventory was about 245,000 units, up from 160,000 in July 2021.
Cox Automotive expects total U.S. vehicle sales to be 14.4 million units in 2022, down from a previous forecast of 15.3 million, due to greater than expected supply chain issues. At current sales rates, new-vehicle sales this year would finish below 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced dealers and factories to temporarily shutter.
