Ford sales down in November but automaker hits EV milestone

Ford Motor Co.’s saw its U.S. sales slide in November, but it notched a significant milestone in its electrification strategy: it became the No. 2 brand and manufacturer in electric-vehicle sales behind industry leader Tesla Inc.

The Dearborn automaker sold 146,364 new vehicles last month, down 7.8% from November 2021. Truck sales of 81,210 units were down 1.2%, while SUV sales of 61,889 units were off 15% from a year ago.

But the Blue Oval continues to see momentum around its initial portfolio of battery-electric vehicles, with sales in that segment up more than 100% to 6,255 vehicles in November. Ford said that its EV sales grew at roughly double the rate of the segment overall last month as its market share in the segment climbed to 8.6%. The automaker is working to ramp up EV production to meet goals of producing 600,000 EVs annually by the end of next year and 2 million annually by the end of 2025 as part of its bid to take leadership of a segment that to date has been dominated by Tesla.

Ford beat out Hyundai-Kia for the No. 2 EV position. Still, Tesla remains far ahead of its competitors.

Ford has sold 53,752 EVs in the U.S. this year through November, counting sales of the F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit. Tesla does not provide regional breakdowns of its sales.

However, a report released earlier this week by S&P Global Mobility on Tesla’s market share sheds some light. Of the more than 525,000 EVs that were registered in the U.S. over the first nine months of 2022, nearly 340,000 were Teslas, according to the report. The firm reported that new entrants in the EV market are starting to chip away at Tesla’s share, which slipped from 79% in 2020 to 65% this year.

Ford reported selling 2,062 units in November of the all-electric F-150 Lightning, which was one of the first battery-electric pickups to launch in the U.S. earlier this year and so far is the best-selling with a total of 13,258 sales. Sales of the electric Mustang Mach-E were up 14.6% year-over-year, to 3,589, in November — and Ford reported this week that global production of the crossover SUV has now topped 150,000 units.