Ford Motor said its new vehicle sales rose 10 percent in the three months between April and June on strong demand for trucks.
The automaker sold 531,662 motor vehicles in the second quarter of the year, up from 483,688, as sales of pickups, delivery vans and heavy trucks rose 26 percent. The rise in truck sales has more than offset the nearly 3 percent decline in electric vehicle sales.
Ford sold 14,843 battery-powered cars and trucks in the quarter, down from 15,273 in the year-ago period. The company has had to slow production to upgrade assembly lines and ramp up capacity to make more vehicles later this year.
The upgrade work primarily affected the Mustang Mach-E, whose sales declined 21 percent in the second quarter. Ford also sold 4,466 F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks in the quarter. That’s more than double the same period last year, and the second-highest quarterly total since truck sales began.
On Wednesday, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia posted increases of 14 percent or more. Overall, automakers sold more than four million cars and trucks in the second quarter, up 15 percent from a year earlier, according to market research firm Cox Automotive. New car sales have remained below their pre-pandemic levels as parts shortages have forced automakers to produce fewer vehicles over the past three years.
