Ford Motor Co and Hyundai Motor on Tuesday reported marginal declines in US auto sales in November, as sales of electric vehicles fizzled following the end of tax credits.
Demand for electric vehicles has taken a hit after Republican US President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill ended the $7,500 tax credits for new EV purchases in October.
Ford also had to contend with the impact of a fire at one of the plants of a key aluminum supplier, hitting production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup.
Sales of Ford’s EVs, such as the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning, were down about 61 per cent to 4,247 vehicles in November from last year.
Overall sales of the Detroit automaker in the month slipped nearly 1 per cent to 164,925 units from a year earlier.
Several automakers released November US sales tallies Tuesday, including South Korea’s Kia Corp. , which posted a 2.7 per cent gain, and Honda Motor, which said sales for the month fell 15 per cent , hurt by a shortage of semiconductors.
Sales of Hyundai’s two top-selling EV models in the US – the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 – each fell more than 55 per cent in November. Overall sales slipped 2 per cent .
Randy Parker, Hyundai’s CEO of North America, told Reuters the automaker expected a sharp decline following the tax credit’s expiration. He said some shoppers who may have been interested in a fully electric car have chosen hybrids, sales of which surged 42 per cent for the month.
Parker said Hyundai will continue to push its EVs, and that he wants to get an “unfair share” of sales in the market.
“We view EV as an opportunity. We’ve got to generate our own buzz in the marketplace,” he said.>
