Ford Motor Co. reported Wednesday that it sold more than half a million vehicles in the U.S. during the third quarter, boosted by strength in sales of hybrid and electric vehicles and trucks.
Overall, the automaker said sales rose 7.7% from a year ago to 500,504 vehicles, bringing the year-to-date total to 1.51 million vehicles.
“We saw strong balanced sales growth providing choice to our customers in the third quarter, with growth coming from our gas engine, electric, hybrid and commercial van lineup,” said Andrew Frick, vice president of sales, distribution and trucks. “Ford’s truck lineup remains the industry’s top seller.”
Meanwhile, Ford’s stock
F,
fell 0.3% in morning trading toward a one-month low, and has dropped 4.2% amid a four-day losing streak. The sales data comes after Ford said it sent its “strongest” proposal yet to the United Auto Workers in an effort to end the near three-week strike, saying that while the offer is “costly,” it will still allow for investment in growth.
Hybrid vehicle sales jumped 41.4% from a year ago to 34,861 vehicles and sales of electric vehicles rose 14.8% to 20,962 EVs, boosted by 42.5% growth in Mustang Mach-E sales to 5,872. Total hybrid and EV sales represented 11.2% of total vehicle sales.
Truck sales climbed 15.3% to 275,554, while sales of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) slipped 0.1% to 215,106.
Within trucks, F-Series sales rose 13.4% to 190,477, while sales of the electric F-150 Lightning tumbled 45.8% to 3,503. So far this year, Ford has sold 573,370 F-Series trucks, including 12,260 F-150 Lightning trucks.
Sales of the Transit van grew 28.3% to 34,006, including an 89.8% spike in E-Transit sales to 2,617 vans.
Ford’s stock has gained 3.4% year to date, while shares of rival General Motors Co.
GM,
have lost 6.8% and the S&P 500 index
SPX
has advanced 10.4%.
Read the full article here