Ford F-150 Lightning at the 2022 New York Auto Show.
Scott Mill | CNBC
DETROIT – Ford Motor Company’s U.S. vehicle sales last month showed notable improvements in volumes and truck availability, after a fire at a supplier’s plant in Japan hurt sales a year ago year.
The Detroit automaker said Wednesday its new vehicle sales rose 36.6 percent in July from a year ago, compared with industry sales that were estimated to have declined 10.5 %. Ford’s July sales of 163,942 vehicles were up 7.7% from June.
A year ago, Ford’s vehicle production and sales fell more than other automakers due to a fire at one of its chip suppliers in Japan that forced it to cut production through the first half of 2021 .
Ford shares rose as much as 6.5% in early Wednesday trading to $16.15 a share. Despite having its best performance last month since the Great Recession, shares remain around 24% in 2022.
Sales of Ford’s profitable F-Series pickups reached 63,341 in July, marking the first time units have topped 60,000 this year. Sales were up 21.1% from a year ago and about 10% from the previous month.
Ford said its share of the U.S. electric vehicle market last month hit a record 10.9 percent as the company ramps up production and availability of the F-150 Lightning pickup, the Mustang Mach crossover -E and the E-Transit van.
Ford said sales of electric vehicles totaled 30,648 units through July. This included sales of about 7,700 vehicles in July, which was a 169% increase from a year ago.
Sales of all Ford vehicles, including its Lincoln luxury brand, totaled more than 1 million units through July, down 3.3 percent from a year ago. At the end of last month, the automaker’s US vehicle inventory was about 245,000 units, up from 160,000 in July 2021.
Cox Automotive expects total U.S. vehicle sales to be 14.4 million units in 2022, down from a previous forecast of 15.3 million, due to larger-than-expected supply chain issues . At current sales rates, new vehicle sales this year will end up below 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced dealerships and factories to temporarily close.