Ford’s iconic EVs, commercial vehicles and fueled a 10.7 percent sales increase in the first quarter, making Blue Oval America’s best-selling brand.
Sales rose in Ford’s areas of strength, including pickup trucks (up 19.6 percent); Three-row SUV (47.6 percent more); Bronco brand (up 18.3 percent); Ford Pro Transit van (up 86.0 per cent); Mustang (up 5.2 percent) and electric vehicles (up 41.0 percent).
Overall sales of Ford vehicles (Ford Blue, Ford Pro, Model E and Lincoln) totaled 475,906, up 10.1 percent from an estimated share of more than a year ago.
Ford’s electric vehicle sales grew 41.0 percent in the first quarter on sales of 10,866 electric vehicles. F-150 Lightning sales totaled 4,291 trucks with production capacity shares on track to reach an annual production rate of 150,000 this year.
Sales of E-Transit’s Ford Pro, the best-selling electric van in America last year, rose 62.7 percent. Reflecting downtime at the plant for changes to increase production, Mustang Mach-E sales were down.
Ford is America’s No. 1 selling pickup truck manufacturer, with 254,023 trucks and vans sold in the first quarter, surpassing GM truck and van sales by approximately 27,000 vehicles.
Ford’s overall van sales, including vans and vans, rose 19.6 percent on strength from the F-series vans (up 21.1 percent) and the Ford Pro Transit van (86.0 percent more).
To support this push, Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant will add a third team in April to ramp up Ford Pro production of the best-selling Transit and E-Transit vans.
Ford is also ramping up production at manufacturing plants across North America to meet strong customer demand for vehicles, including the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, Bronco Sport and Maverick.
“Ford has had a fast start to the year. Ford’s sales growth and investments are a direct result of strong customer demand in our pickup truck, SUV and electric vehicle segments.
And this year’s highly anticipated new product launches with the Super Duty, Escape, Mustang and Ranger, will only add to this momentum,” said Andrew Frick, vice president of truck and sales distribution.
Ford Explorer was the best-selling midsize three-row SUV in America, and the red-hot Bronco brand saw sales growth of 18.3 percent, including an increase of 37.6 percent for Bronco. Additionally, Expedition sales increased.
BlueCruise, Ford’s driver assistance technology, is now available in 186,000 vehicles; customers have accumulated more than 55 million hands-free miles driven with the technology.
Consumer Reports ranked Ford BlueCruise as the highest rated active driver assistance system.
