Ford Motor Co. (F, Financial) released its second-quarter U.S. sales on July 3.
The Michigan-based automaker no longer reports monthly sales.
About the quarter
Ford sold a total of 650,356 vehicles in the second quarter, reflecting a 4.1% decline on a year-over-year basis. The company attributed the decrease to weak sales of SUVs and cars.
Passenger car sales tumbled 21.4% to 110,195 units and SUV sales fell 8.6% to 215,898 units. Trucks remained the bright spot for the company with 324,248 deliveries, up 7.5%. Trucks and SUVs accounted for 83% of the total quarterly sales.
Ford Mustang sales amounted to 21,625 units in the second quarter, down 7.05% year over year. Explorer sales plummeted 37.58% to 35,374 units.
Expedition sales, however, rose an impressive 50% to 21,796 units. To accomodate the rising demand, the company has started increasing the production capacity at the Ford Kentucky truck plant.
In a statement, Mark LaNeve, vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, said:
“In a very competitive market, we grew our total pickup segment share in Q2, and we have extended F-Series’ leadership this year and now with the Ranger introduction we have further broadened America’s best-selling lineup. We also began selling our all-new Explorer at the end of the quarter. With the Explorer and the all-new Escape coming soon, we are on track to have the freshest SUV lineup in the industry by year’s end. “
F-Series and Lincoln sales
F-Series sales slipped 1.33% in the second quarter to 233,787 units. The average transaction price stood at $47,500, which was $1,200 more than the previous year and $2,500 above the segment average.
Lincoln sales dipped 6.7% on a year-over-year basis to 25,940 units. While Lincoln MKC sales fell 19.44% to 5,956 units, Continental sales declined 28.12% to 1,490 units. Navigator sales were 4,387 units, down 13.18%. With the all-new Lincoln Aviator on sale and the addition of the all-new 2020 Lincoln Corsair later this year, the company is expected to generate robust Lincoln sales in the second half of 2019.
Fierce competition in the pickup market hurt Ford
General Motors (GM, Financial), Toyota Motors (TM, Financial) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU, Financial) have made considerable efforts over the past two years to gain market share in the pickup truck market.
In particular, GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and Fiat Chrysler’s Ram pickup trucks are threats to the F-Series trucks. To step up its game, General Motors announced last month it plans to invest $50 million in its Flint truck assembly plant to increase full-size pickup truck production. As for Chrysler, it announced in February it would invest $4.5 billion in Michigan to add capacity and boost pickup truck and SUV production.
Disclosure: I do not hold any positions in the stocks mentioned.
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