Despite a positive upswing in electric car sales in the US over the past three months, American automaker Ford’s EV sales fell by 2.8% in Q2 from the first quarter.
Ford’s electric pickup, the F-150 Lightning, was its only purely electric vehicle to see sales rise compared to last year.
F-150 Lightning sales reached 4,466 in the second quarter, up 118.7% compared to just over 2K last year. Keep in mind, however, Ford began delivering the electric pickup last May, so doubling sales over the previous year is to be expected.
The automaker says it continues attracting new customers, with 50% of buyers coming from different brands.
On the other hand, Ford’s first electric car, the Mustang Mach-E, saw sales fall 21.1% YOY. The decline comes after Mach-E sales were down 20% in the first three months of the year. Year-to-date (YTD) sales of the electric SUV are down 20.6%.
Andrew Frick, VP of sales distribution, said, “Improved Mustang Mach E inventory flow began to hit at the end of Q2 following the retooling of our plant earlier this year.”
Ford announced last year it would be retooling its Mexico plant, where the Mustang Mach-E is built, which would result in downtime at the facility.
Frick said the move “helped Mustang Mach-E sales climb 110% in June.” Overall, Ford’s EV sales were up 35.5% in June, despite a slow start to the quarter.
Mustang Mach-E production has picked up throughout the year, with 0 being built in January, 300 in February, 7,381 in March, 11,858 in April, 13,639 in May, and another 13,000 in June.
Ford also halted production of the Lightning in mid-February after discovering a potential battery issue, resuming operations at the end of March.
Sales of Ford’s electric van, the E-Transit, were down 23.8% compared to last year, with 1,744 units sold in Q2.
Ford recently received a massive $9.2 billion loan from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Program Office to build three battery factories in the US and boost domestic production. The loan is the single largest in the Loan Program Office’s history and the biggest overall since the US auto bailouts in 2009.
Electrek’s Take
Both Ford and GM posted disappointing EV sales results in Q2, while purely EV makers like Tesla, Rivian, and Polestar all posted record results.
It seems over the past two years or so, automakers focusing their resources and time purely on electric vehicles are securing the supply chain needed to ramp production. Meanwhile, automakers like Ford and GM, which continue to invest in ICE vehicles, are having difficulty meeting demand with softening EV sales this year and ongoing supply chain hurdles.
Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe told BloombergTV in a recent interview, “What we saw in Q2 was the beginnings of the supply chain really running in a healthy way” after struggling with hurdles over the last year.
We’ll see how the rest of the year plays out, but if the second quarter is any indication, EV makers are starting to get a leg up on legacy automakers.
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