Ford more than doubles electric vehicle sales as it chases Tesla

Sunday, 8 January 2023

Watch Ford reveal the all-new, all-electric F-150 Lighting.

Ford Motor Co.'s electric vehicle sales more than doubled last year in the U.S., fortifying its standing as No. 2 in the EV race behind Tesla.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker sold 61,575 EVs last year, a 126% surge as it debuted the F-150 Lightning plug-in pickup and E-Transit van.

Ford's overall U.S. light-vehicle sales fell 2.2% to 1,850,925, according to a statement Thursday, but that was still enough to give the company a small market share gain of 0.7 percentage points.

The Ford Mustang Mach-E is slated to debut in New Zealand this year.

EVs accounted for 3.3% of Ford's sales last year, but Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley has plans for the company to be producing 2 million EVs a year by the end of 2026, and he's spending US$50 billion to roll out battery-powered models.

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Strong sales of Bronco sport-utility vehicles helped partially offset a 9.9% decline in F-Series pickup sales last year. Ford said it has sold 15,617 electric versions of the F-150 since it went on sale in May, making it the best-selling electric pickup on the market.

Sales of the electric Mustang Mach-E rose 45% to 39,458 models, closing in on the gas-fueled version of the pony car that generated 47,566 sales last year, down 9.2%.

Ford's share gain last year 'came from broad-based growth from our SUV lineup and our all-new EVs growing at twice the rate of the overall EV segment,' Andrew Frick, vice president of sales, distribution and trucks, said in the statement.

Rival General Motors, the top overall seller of vehicles in the U.S. last year, sold about 39,000 EVs.