Ford sales up 2% in January, boosted by record EV sales

Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales rose 2% year-over-year in January, boosted by record sales of its all-electric vehicles, which more than doubled over that period.

The Dearborn automaker reported Thursday that it sold 146,356 new vehicles in the U.S. last month. Of those sales, the vast majority — 133,293, or 91% — came from internal combustion vehicles, sales of which were up 2.2%. Hybrid vehicles, meanwhile, accounted for 7,816 sales, which marked a 26.3% drop from the same period last year. And battery-electric vehicle sales from Ford's Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit totaled 5,247 units — up 104% from a year ago.

The automaker reported that it claimed 6.1% of the EV segment in January, up one percentage point from a year ago. The segment remains dominated by Tesla, Inc., while Ford ended 2022 as the No. 2 EV seller in the U.S.

Sales of the F-150 Lightning, which went on sale last spring, totaled 2,264 units in January. E-Transit sales were up 159% to 357 units. And Ford reported 2,626 sales of the Mustang Mach-E, up 10.8% year-over-year. Earlier this week, the automaker announced across-the-board price cuts on the crossover vehicle.

Analysts at market research firm Cox Automotive were still crunching the final sales numbers for the month, but said in a post Thursday that January "did produce some solid sales reports and signs of market strength," with the highlight being strong numbers from the Hyundai and Kia brands. Honda also posted a year-over-year sales increase of more than 14%. Only Toyota saw a "notable" sales drop, according to Cox.

The firm had forecast a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 15.6 million sales, but said that early data indicated sales likely came in slightly higher, at a rate of 15.7 million units. Cox experts expected to see a 2.7% year-over-year sales gain in January.

"Either way, new-vehicle sales in January were solid and likely a sign that improved inventory levels are having the expected positive effect," according to Cox. Expect automakers to pivot in the coming months to a focus on fleet sales amid higher interest rates and inflationary pressures on retail consumers, analysts said.

Meanwhile, other sales highlights for Ford for the month included the Bronco family of off-road SUVs, and trucks, Ford's profit center. The full-size Bronco had 10,170 sales last month, up 25.5% year-over-year, and saw its share of the mid-size off-road SUV segment climb 12 percentage points over last year to 36%. The smaller Bronco Sport, meanwhile, notched 9,438 sales last month, up 51.7%.

The Blue Oval's best-selling F-Series truck franchise sold 55,001 units in January, up 8.8% from January 2022.

Nameplates that saw sales decrease in January from a year ago included the gas-powered Mustang, the Maverick pickup, the Ranger pickup and the Explorer, Edge, Escape and EcoSport SUVs. Expedition SUV sales were up 20.5%, and sales of the Transit cargo van were up more than 105%.

Ford's luxury Lincoln brand saw sales rise 1.2% in January to 5,808 units.

The automaker recorded a record 351,000 retail orders for model year 2023 vehicles, up 47.5% over model year 2022 vehicle orders from a year ago.

Ford ended the month with nearly 370,000 units of gross vehicle stock in the U.S.

jgrzelewski@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @JGrzelewski