Ford’s new car sales were slow in August, in line with expectations | Daily News Byte

DETROIT – Ford Motor on Friday it said its US sales last month rose by double-digits from a year earlier but fell about 4% from the previous month, as the company and the auto industry continued to manage the significant supply chain issues.

The Detroit automaker reported August sales of 158,088 new vehicles in the US, a 27% increase from August 2021, as the company’s production and sales were significantly impacted by a shortage of semiconductor chips. Sales last month fell 3.6% compared to July, including an 8% drop in its F-Series pickup trucks.

Sales were in line with analyst expectations, though. The company said its Ford brand was America’s best-selling brand for a second consecutive month.

Sales of Ford’s most profitable F-Series pickup rose 1.7% for the month to August 2021 but fell 10.7% for the first eight months of the year compared to the same period last year. The company sold 6,842 models of its all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup as of Aug. 31, including 2,373 vehicles last month.

“The F-Series was America’s best-selling truck, best-selling hybrid truck and best-selling electric truck with the F-150 Lightning in August. Ford’s overall electric vehicle portfolio expanded four-fold in July , while capturing from speed competitors. more than 60%,” said Andrew Frick, Ford vice president of sales, distribution and trucks, in a release.

Ford’s 2022 electric vehicle sales reached more than 36,500 units through August. That included sales of about 5,900 vehicles in August, which was 23% lower than the previous month but up more than 300% from a year ago.

Year-to-date sales of all Ford vehicles, including its Lincoln luxury brand, totaled more than 1.2 million units through August, a 0.2% decline from a year ago. At the end of last month, the automaker’s US vehicle inventory, including dealer stock and vehicles on board, was about 259,000 units, up from 254,000 in July.

JD Power and LMC Automotive estimated that total new vehicle sales in the US last month topped 980,000 units, which would be 2.6% lower than August 2021 – the first month that the auto industry’s vehicle inventories were was greatly affected by the ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips.

RBC Capital Markets said the seasonally adjusted annualized rate, or SAAR, for new vehicles was 13.4 million, slightly higher than its 13.2 million forecast and in line with July’s 13.5 million. SAAR is a metric closely watched by analysts and investors.