Ford Motor stated Thursday that its new-vehicle gross sales rose 10 p.c 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 yr, as gross sales of pickups, supply vans and heavy vans elevated 26 p.c. The acquire in truck gross sales greater than offset a decline of almost 3 p.c in gross sales of electrical autos.
Ford bought 14,843 battery-powered vehicles and vans within the quarter, down from 15,273 a yr earlier. The corporate has needed to gradual manufacturing to improve meeting strains and improve its means to make extra autos later this yr.
The improve work primarily affected the Mustang Mach-E, whose gross sales declined 21 p.c within the second quarter. Ford additionally bought 4,466 F-150 Lightning electrical pickup vans within the quarter. That was greater than double the full from a yr earlier and the second-highest quarterly whole because the truck went on sale.
On Wednesday, Normal Motors, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia reported will increase of 14 p.c or extra. Total, automakers bought greater than 4.1 million vehicles and vans within the second quarter, based on Cox Automotive, a market analysis agency, a rise of 16 p.c from a yr earlier. The entire, nonetheless, was about 400,000 fewer vehicles than the trade sometimes bought within the second quarter earlier than the coronavirus pandemic.
Gross sales stay under their prepandemic ranges as a result of elements shortages have pressured automakers to provide fewer autos for a lot of the final three years. The provision of laptop chips, which have been notably arduous to get, has improved in current months, permitting automakers to provide extra of the autos that customers have been ready to purchase.
Cox now expects whole 2023 gross sales to exceed 15 million autos. Whereas that may be an enormous improve from final yr’s 13.9 million, it’s effectively under the 17 million the trade bought earlier than the pandemic.
