Ford Motor Co. said new vehicle sales rose 10% in the three months from April to June, thanks to strong demand for trucks.
The company’s vehicle sales totaled 531,662, up from 483,688 in the second quarter of the year, as sales of pickups, delivery vans and heavy trucks rose 26%. The increase in truck sales more than offset the roughly 3% decline in electric vehicle sales.
Ford sold 14,843 battery-powered cars and trucks in the quarter, down from 15,273 in the same period last year. The company had to upgrade its assembly line and slow production to increase its capacity to produce more vehicles later this year.
Upgrade work primarily affected the Mustang Mach E, which saw a 21% decline in sales in the second quarter. Ford also sold 4,466 F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks in the quarter. That’s more than double the year-ago total and the second-highest quarterly total since the truck’s launch.
On Wednesday, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia Motors reported increases of more than 14%. Auto makers as a whole sold more than 4 million cars and trucks in the second quarter, up 15% from a year earlier, according to market research firm Cox Automotive. New car sales remain below pre-pandemic levels as automakers cut production for most of the past three years due to parts shortages.
